Re: [PATCH] xdiff-interface.c (buffer_is_binary): Remove buffer size limitation

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

"Dmitry V. Levin" <ldv@altlinux.org> writes:

> When checking buffer for NUL byte, do not limit size of buffer we check.
> Otherwise we break git-rebase: git-format-patch may generate output which
> git-mailinfo cannot handle properly.

I think this is tackling a valid problem but it is a wrong solution.
The change penalizes text changes which is the majority, just in case
there is an unusual change that has an embedded NUL far into the file
(iow, exception).

Perhaps mailinfo can be updated to handle embedded NUL.

Another alternative (I've been trying to find time to do so for quite a
while now but dealing with list traffic always takes priority on my time
allotment) is to update rebase not to rely on "format-patch piped to
am", and I think that is more correct solution in the longer term.

In the meantime, a workaround would be to use "rebase -i".  It uses
cherry-pick machinery instead of "format-patch piped to am", and
hopefully would handle NULs better.  It probably is slower than non
interactive one exactly because it uses cherry-pick, and that is the
reason I am first working on updating cherry-pick before actually making
the non-interactive rebase to use it.