git.vger.kernel.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Richard Hansen <rhansen@bbn.com>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Why isn't the index a tree?
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:24:44 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <4E4ED49C.6050405@bbn.com> (raw)

I expected the index to be implemented something like a ref to a tree 
object (per stage) plus some stat()/assume-unchanged/etc. metadata. 
Instead, it appears to be a (sorted?) flat list of full paths with their 
associated SHA1s and metadata.

Is there a reason why each stage in the index isn't implemented as a tree?

If the index was a tree, I believe it would make several tasks easier:
   * you could easily get the diff between stage 1 and some arbitrary 
revision (e.g., git diff HEAD^^ :1:)
   * you could commit and checkout empty directories
   * you could use update-index --cacheinfo to directly insert/replace 
an entire subdirectory
   * etc.

Thanks,
Richard

             reply	other threads:[~2011-08-19 21:50 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2011-08-19 21:24 Richard Hansen [this message]
2011-08-19 23:05 ` Why isn't the index a tree? Jon Seymour

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=4E4ED49C.6050405@bbn.com \
    --to=rhansen@bbn.com \
    --cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).