Re: git add without whitespace

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 31, 2016, 16:16 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqvb1u5hka.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAHd499AreoaqfCVGi6XiatiWQMzf+KqL=a+f3D8u53dNkg0tiQ@mail.gmail.com>

Robert Dailey <rcdailey.lists@gmail.com> writes:

> - Splitting whitespace & real changes to two commits is probably
> superfluous; my original goal was to make diffing the actual changes
> easier, but since 'git diff -w' exists this is moot.

Doing "whitespace clean-up" in a separate preparatory patch _is_ a good practice. I do not think either approach makes it harder to do. After all, if you had a real change on the same line that you dropped a broken whitespace, e.g. (end-of-line shown with '$')

    -	if  (i==1) {  $
    +   if (j == 2) {$

both approaches would add the updated line.

The wsadd is about protecting _me_ from introducing new whitespace breakages, not about helping me when fixing existing whitespace breakages. So from that point of view, that may not fit well to what you are trying to do.