Re: git index: how does it work?

Aha ---

that explains it, then.

Is there a lower-level interface to rename detection than via  
"status"? And... um... hmmm.... how does it work? The hash codes don't  
help for "almost" the same. Is there an approximate string matching  
algorithm built in somewhere?

Thanks,

-- Shaun

On Aug 12, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Sverre Rabbelier wrote:

Heya,

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 04:52, Shaun Cutts[off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

Are renames being tracked by the index, and is there a more basic  
interface
than "status" to query about them?

Nope, git never explicitly tracks renames. Try this:
$ mv foo bar
$ git rm --cached foo
$ git add bar
$ git status

It'll tell you that you renamed foo to bar, even if you never  
executed 'git mv'.

This is because git does rename _detection_, that is, it'll notice
that you have another file with (almost) the same contents, so it
assumes you did a rename.

-- 
Cheers,

Sverre Rabbelier