Re: [PATCH] Make the exit code of add_file_to_index actually useful

Johannes Schindelin [off-list ref] writes:

On Sun, 2 Mar 2008, Alex Riesen wrote:

quoted

-			add_file_to_cache(path, verbose);
+			if (add_file_to_cache(path, verbose))
+				exit(1);

Does it really, really _have_ to be exit(1)?  I mean, now you block even 
the faintest chance that we can libify libgit.a by overriding die_routine.

I think Alex did so not to break the existing scripts that rely on these
dying, but it should have been exit(128) to really stay compatible.

Why is this even needed to begin with?  I am aware of Dirk's original
issue discussed elsewhere, but we try fairly hard to be A-O-N when we can
afford to, and this option deliberately breaks it.  What is the real
reason why such an unreadable (either for privilege or for I/O error)
file should not live in .gitignore?