Re: [PATCH 1/1] git-apply: Allow simultaneous --cached and --3way options

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 5, 2021, 22:23 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqy2dw4bh3.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CAMKO5CtCk_sJsFFiKKFR1wCSyY226CbxPtN6=p6JRzocSuv8jQ@mail.gmail.com>

Jerry Zhang <jerry@skydio.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> I can see what you mean about the user safety issue. However,
> my specific use case (see cover letter) involves an index that does not
> match HEAD, and wouldn't be possible at all if we forced the index to
> match HEAD. Furthermore git-apply --cached even without --3way
> doesn't force the index to match HEAD either, so why force it now?

Primarily because we tend to be extra careful before mergy operation than any other operation. Especially without --3way, apply (with or without --cached/--index) is extra careful to make itself all-or-none operation to be safe, so that there is no mixed mess that requires manual intervention (which would further increase the risk of mistakes).

It is OK to introduce a new option to allow a dirty index, and your tool can pass that option when it calls "apply --cached --3way", but it would be safe to require a clean index (it does not matter how dirty the working tree is ;-) by default.