Re: git rm bug

[Thomas Fischer <thomasfischer@fastmail.com>]

I agree that the entire chain of empty directories should not be tracked, as git tracks content, not files.

However, when I run 'rm path/to/some/file', I expect path/to/some/ to still exist.

Similarly, when I run 'git rm path/to/some/file', I expect path/to/some/ to exist, *albeit untracked*.

I do NOT expect git to *track* empty directories. But I also do NOT expect it to remove untracked directories.

-- 
  Thomas Fischer
  thomasfischer@fastmail.com

On Wed, Jun 6, 2018, at 2:33 PM, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Jun 2018, Thomas Fischer wrote:
> 
> > OVERVIEW
> >
> > "git rm" will remove more files than specified. This is either a bug or undocumented behavior (not in the man pages).
> >
> > SETUP
> >
> > 1. In a git repository, create an empty directory OR a chain of empty directories
> >
> > $ mkdir -p path/to/some/
> >
> > 2. Create a file in the deepest directory and add it to tracking
> >
> > $ touch path/to/some/file
> > $ git add path/to/some/file
> > $ git commit -m 'add path/to/some/file'
> >
> > THE BUG
> >
> > Run 'git rm' on the tracked file.
> >
> > EXPECTED BEHAVIOR
> >
> > $ git rm path/to/some/file
> > rm 'path/to/some/file'
> > $ ls path
> > to/
> > $ ls path/to
> > some/
> >
> > Note that path/, path/to/, and path/to/some/ still exist.
> >
> > ACTUAL BEHAVIOR
> >
> > $ git rm path/to/some/file
> > rm 'path/to/some/file'
> > $ ls path
> > ls: cannot access 'path': No such file or directory
> >
> > The entire chain of empty directories is removed, despite the fact
> > the git outputs only "rm 'path/to/some/file'".
> 
>   git cannot track empty directories. as that was the *only* content
> in that whole hierarchy, the entire hierarchy had to be deleted.
> 
> rday