# gitk / diffcore-rename error message

2 messages from 2008-05-30 to 2008-05-30. Participants: Alf Clement, Jeff King.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/13734

## Alf Clement, 2008-05-30 15:54

Subject: gitk / diffcore-rename error message
Message-ID: <556d90580805300854k27e0ea9ev3aabcfb28f131228@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/556d90580805300854k27e0ea9ev3aabcfb28f131228%40mail.gmail.com

```
Hi all,

I was trying to create a git repository in the following way (while
importing different releases from clearcase tree)

git init .
tar xzf version1..
git add .
git commit -a -m"Version1"
rm -rf tree
tar xzf version2
git add .
git commit -a -m"Version2"
... and so on for next next verison.

Now I get the following error while using gitk:
warning: too many files, skipping inexact rename detection
warning: too many files, skipping inexact rename detection
    while executing
"close $bdf"
    (procedure "getblobdiffline" line
...

which seems to come out of diffcore-rename.c

Can I ignore it? Is it harmful?

Thanks,
Alf

```

## Jeff King, 2008-05-30 23:10

Subject: Re: gitk / diffcore-rename error message
Message-ID: <20080530231041.GA11813@sigill.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080530231041.GA11813%40sigill.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <556d90580805300854k27e0ea9ev3aabcfb28f131228@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 05:54:42PM +0200, Alf Clement wrote:

> Now I get the following error while using gitk:
> warning: too many files, skipping inexact rename detection
> warning: too many files, skipping inexact rename detection
>     while executing
> "close $bdf"
>     (procedure "getblobdiffline" line
> ...
> 
> which seems to come out of diffcore-rename.c
> 
> Can I ignore it? Is it harmful?

It isn't harmful. You had a big commit, and git decided it wasn't worth
trying to do rename detection on such a big change (because it would
likely take too much CPU time).

The upcoming version of git suppresses this message since it confuses
gitk. So you can try upgrading to the most recent 'master' to fix it. In
the meantime, you can either ignore it (though I think it may interfere
with gitk showing the correct diff), or you can try setting the rename
limit higher (try "git config diff.renamelimit 400").

-Peff

```