Re: [RFC PATCH v4 00/19] Sparse checkout

[Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>]

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Nguyþÿ\x1eÅn Thþÿ
> Welcome to the fourth round of sparse checkout this year, dubbed "The
> mummy^W^W^W^W^Wno-checkout returns", although the bit now comes under
> a new name "skip-worktree" [1]. This series has two parts: sparse
> worktree and sparse checkout. Details will be given below.
> 
> For brave users of this series: I have pushed it to my sparse-checkout
> branch [2] so you can just clone it and test away. Visible changes:
> 
>  - the spec is now .git/info/sparse-checkout
>  - the spec is positive matching, that is it matches what _is_ in
>    worktree, not what is out of worktree like the last series
>  - you need to set core.sparsecheckout no additional command argument
>    is needed.
[...]

> [1] There are a few reasons behind this rename:
>  - there is nothing about "checkout" in the first part, it's about
>    "sparse worktree"
>  - the double negation issue with "no-" part of "no-checkout"
>  - new name makes cache.h diff align beautifully

Well, on one hand side it is more clear what is checked out, 
and perhaps more common case of checking out only selected files
is simpler.

On the other hand if it was .git/info/no-checkout or checkout-exclude,
or worktree-exclude, empty file or lack of such file would mean full
checkout.  Then core.sparsecheckout (or core.sparsefile) would be
needed only for performance reasons (no need to examine
checkout-exclude file) even if we decide to ship example file with
comments describing its syntax, in templates/info--checkout-exclude

But that is just bikeshedding, don't let it distract you from the real
issue of this series...

-- 
Jakub Narþÿ\x01\x19bski

In related news: there is really no question that bike sheds should be
painted red. Really.  
(Johannes Schindelin, on git mailing list)