Re: [PATCH 6/7] builtin/describe.c: describe a blob

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 2, 2017, 01:53 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqinetsayr.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAGZ79kYC4=rDSWC7WCGVL4n4OC8BpvMJFwxx+LV9GqoGnSHFSA@mail.gmail.com>

Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:

Show 9 quoted lines

> But now we have a path as well, the notation of
> <commit-ish> COLON <path>
> is not a unique description of the blob, because
> * there can be multiple <commit-ish>s depending on the tags and walking
> * in boilerplate code cases, we might even have the blob at different
>   places (e.g. pristine copies of a license file in subdirectories)
>
> When calling for a tree-ish, we also accept commits and tags
> plus walking directions.

I think you are confused --- that is not what "-ish" suffix is used in our conversation on objects.

The reason why we say "-ish" is "Yes we know v2.15.0 is *NOT* a commit object, we very well know it is a tag object, but because we allow it to be used in a context that calls for a commit object, we mark that use context as 'this accepts commit-ish, not just commit'".

But what you call "walking direction", e.g. "HEAD:Makefile", names a "BLOB". It is not "this is something like BLOB, no, we very well know it is not a blob but the context allows such a non-blob to be fed in place of a blob, so we take that even though it is not a blob". Because it is.