Re: [PATCH 2/2] filter-branch: fail gracefully when a filter fails

David Kastrup [off-list ref] writes:

Instead of "grep ." one could also do something like

if read line then
  while echo "$line" && read line; do :; done
  die
fi

which is fork-less.

I'd agree with you that "grep ^" would be preferable _if_ we
were to do this.  But in your fork-less example, you are
assuming that (1) "read" does not molest what is read, (2)
"echo" is built-in, and (3) "echo" does not munge the
parameter.

Since I am one of old fashioned shell people (I readily admit
that I used to have _fun_ with autoconf generated shell
scripts), I'd love to continue shell skill show-offs, but for
the purpose of updating this script, I would say a temporary
file is much better than any of the alternatives around 1>&3.
For one thing, it would make debugging the script while
developing and tweaking it, _and_ while using it, much more
pleasant.

On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 01:33:02AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

the purpose of updating this script, I would say a temporary
file is much better than any of the alternatives around 1>&3.

As the one who originally mentioned the redirection trick, let me say
that I agree. I brought it up more as "yuck, this is the way you have
to do it" than a real suggestion. I think the tempfile, while ugly, is
less ugly.

-Peff