git patch format for rename

Hi,

could you please explain to me why  ‘rename from & rename to’ information is added to git patch? 

Here is the patch created by `git format-patch`: 

    diff --git a/before.txt b/after.txt
    similarity index 100%
    rename from before.txt
    rename to after.txt

Is there any reason why git can’t recognize and apply rename-change which looks like this:

    diff --git a/before.txt b/after.txt
    --- a/before.txt
    +++ b/after.txt
    
or even like this:
    diff --git a/before.txt b/after.txt

I’m implementing a program (with an IDE) to create patches compatible with Git and want to have better understanding of the format and possible issues with it.

Thanks a lot in advance.

On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 9:00 AM, Nadya.Zabrodina@jetbrains.com <Nadya.Zabrodina@jetbrains.com> wrote:

See https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/diff-generate-patch.txt for the status quo. I think most of it grew over time and made sense at the time of implementation, so the alternatives were maybe considered, you'd need to look for the old discussions around the diff format.