when is "git diff" output suitable for patch?

when is "git diff" output suitable for patch?

[J. Bruce Fields]

I assume the -C and -M, -c, and -cc options all result in diff output
that can't be correctly applied by "patch" any more?  (Would a patch to
the git-diff-files documentation warning about this be helpful?)

Someone I'm working with is having trouble applying patches that they
created with a simple "git diff".  The patches in question have some
"copy from/copy to" headers.  Should that every happen with just a plain
"git diff"?  Is this a bug in their version of git?  (They're on 1.2.4).

--b.

Re: when is "git diff" output suitable for patch?

[Junio C Hamano]

"J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@fieldses.org> writes:

> I assume the -C and -M, -c, and -cc options all result in diff output
> that can't be correctly applied by "patch" any more?  (Would a patch to
> the git-diff-files documentation warning about this be helpful?)

May not be bad to have, except that I do not know if
"git-diff-files" documentation is the right place to talk about
it.

> Someone I'm working with is having trouble applying patches that they
> created with a simple "git diff".  The patches in question have some
> "copy from/copy to" headers.  Should that every happen with just a plain
> "git diff"?  Is this a bug in their version of git?  (They're on 1.2.4).

As far as I recall "git diff" never defaulted to -M.  These days
you can have diff.renames = true in the configuration to make it
so, but and I do not think there was any way to do that back in
1.2.4.

If _they_ created the diff with git, and if that is the same
_they_ who are having trouble applying, maybe you can suggest to
use "git apply" instead of "patch -p1"?

Re: when is "git diff" output suitable for patch?

[J. Bruce Fields]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2006 at 02:27:33PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> "J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@fieldses.org> writes:
> 
> > I assume the -C and -M, -c, and -cc options all result in diff output
> > that can't be correctly applied by "patch" any more?  (Would a patch to
> > the git-diff-files documentation warning about this be helpful?)
> 
> May not be bad to have, except that I do not know if
> "git-diff-files" documentation is the right place to talk about
> it.

OK.

> > Someone I'm working with is having trouble applying patches that they
> > created with a simple "git diff".  The patches in question have some
> > "copy from/copy to" headers.  Should that every happen with just a plain
> > "git diff"?  Is this a bug in their version of git?  (They're on 1.2.4).
> 
> As far as I recall "git diff" never defaulted to -M.

Hm.  Is this related?:

commit 42efbf6d8a5b4902c55a2f6e96034625c056ba1f
Author: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date:   Sat Mar 11 17:44:10 2006 -0800

    git-diff: -p disables rename detection.

--b.

Re: when is "git diff" output suitable for patch?

[Junio C Hamano]

"J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@fieldses.org> writes:

>> As far as I recall "git diff" never defaulted to -M.
>
> Hm.  Is this related?:
>
> commit 42efbf6d8a5b4902c55a2f6e96034625c056ba1f
> Author: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
> Date:   Sat Mar 11 17:44:10 2006 -0800
>
>     git-diff: -p disables rename detection.

Ah, sorry, it _did_ default to -M; it was in such an ancient
past and the shell wrapper wasn't initially done by me, so I
misremembered.

Re: when is "git diff" output suitable for patch?

[J. Bruce Fields]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2006 at 02:51:20PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> "J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@fieldses.org> writes:
> 
> >> As far as I recall "git diff" never defaulted to -M.
> >
> > Hm.  Is this related?:
> >
> > commit 42efbf6d8a5b4902c55a2f6e96034625c056ba1f
> > Author: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
> > Date:   Sat Mar 11 17:44:10 2006 -0800
> >
> >     git-diff: -p disables rename detection.
> 
> Ah, sorry, it _did_ default to -M; it was in such an ancient
> past and the shell wrapper wasn't initially done by me, so I
> misremembered.

Perfectly understandable; thanks for the help.--b.