Re: [Census] So who uses git?

Daniel Barkalow [off-list ref] writes:

I sort of suspect that "git commit some_other_file" should really read 
HEAD into a temporary index, update "some_other_file" in that (and the 
main index), and commit it.
...
The surprising thing is that "git commit path ..." means
"everything I've already mentioned, plus path..." not just
"path ...", and it's particularly surprising because people
only tend to specify paths when they've done something they
don't want to commit.

Interesting idea, and a good point.

Not that I particularly would like to encourage people to make
partial commits by making it easier, but as long as we allow our
users to say "commit path...", your proposal would reduce the
confusion.

I wonder which is faster, to check if index differs from HEAD
and do the temporary index only when they differ, or always use
a temporary without checking?  The former needs one diff-index
--cached, zero or one read-tree, one write-tree and one
commit-tree.  The latter always needs one read-tree, one
write-tree and one commit-tree.

Wait.  We already do diff-index --cached during git-commit
anyway (it is in git-status).  Maybe with a bit of code
restructuring we can do the temporary index part optional.