Re: [PATCH 2/4] Resurrect "diff-lib.c: adjust position of i-t-a entries in diff"

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 6, 2016, 20:42 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqtwh6uk0k.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20160606111643.7122-3-pclouds@gmail.com>

Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy  <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> +--shift-ita::
> +	By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
> +	empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
> +	This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
> +	and non-existent in "git diff --cached".

I do not think this should exist at the UI level, even though the use of it in wt-status.c (below) makes a very good sense at least as a temporary band-aid.

At the philosophical level, I however think this "I-T-A does not logically exist in the index (yet)" is a mistake, and "an option controls if I-T-A does or does not exist depending on who calls it" is even worse; it is a road to insanity.

For example, because I-T-A does not logically exist in the index, "git reset --hard" should not remove it but make it untracked again (but I do not think it does). After "git add -N foo", because "foo" does not exist in the index, "git clean" should remove it for the definition of what's in the index to be logically consistent, but the whole intent of "add -N" is that the user meant it is worth checking into sometime in the future, which contradicts with its removal upon "clean".

So, I dunno.