Re: [PATCH] post-checkout hook, and related docs and tests

["Josh England" <jjengla@sandia.gov>]

On Mon, 2007-09-24 at 16:54 -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> "Josh England" <jjengla@sandia.gov> writes:
> 
> > On Mon, 2007-09-24 at 14:07 -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> > ...
> >> If you want to spacial case 
> >> 
> >>         $ git checkout otherbranch path.c
> >> 
> >> it raises another issue.  Which commit should supply the
> >> "extended attribute description" for path.c?  Should it be taken
> >> from the current commit (aka HEAD), otherbranch, or the index?
> >
> > This already is a special case and your question is valid but not one
> > that git should necessary care about.  Since extended attributes are not
> > built into git the only way to handle them is through hooks.  A such, it
> > is up to the hook to worry about these kinds of issues.
> 
> The fear I have is that that kind of thinking would necessitate
> your hook to be called after the user edits paths.c in any other
> way not to confuse users.
> 
> What I am questioning is where we should stop, in order to keep
> things simpler to explain, and I happen to think that it is far
> easier if we can teach that "git checkout other path.c" is
> equivalent to "git cat-file blob other:path.c >path.c" followed
> by "git add path.c", than saying "checkout is magical and if you
> have external hook it can do far more than editing the file
> yourself to arrive at the same contents".
> 
> But I am obviously not the one who is interested in tracking
> extended attributes attached to git contents, and I do not feel
> too strongly about one way or the other.  I am Ok with it if you
> think "checkout is magical" is easier to teach [*1*].
> 
> I just wanted to make sure we know what semantics this is
> bringing in, and get it clearly documented.  That's all.

OK.  I'll try to come up with some good wording for the documentation.

So this leads to my next question:  Should the post-merge patch be
brought in under this same umbrella to form a single post-checkout hook,
or should it stay a separate hook?

-JE