Re: [PATCH 2/4] t4011: illustrate "diff-index -p" on stat-dirty paths

Thomas Rast [off-list ref] writes:

If that analysis is correct, then

  we do not show any "diff --git" header for blobs whose true contents
  are different but compares the same when whitespaces are ignored

is not what is going on here; the blobs have exactly the same content.

True; an earlier draft actually had an 'echo " xyzzy" >nitfol' in there,
but it meant that it needed another annoying 'sleep 3' (I could have used
test-chmtime), so the test was updated but the above description stayed.

The difference is that

* without -w, the code "knows" from the lstat() data that the files are
  different, prints a header, and then fails to find any differences;

Correct. Those quotes around "knows" are the most important ;-)

The code incorrectly thinks the stat dirtyness is all that it "knows";
even though it has a way to act on a better knowledge from the xdiff these
days, it does not utilize it.

* with -w, the code correctly holds off on printing anything since it
  will invariably have to inspect the contents beforehand.

So perhaps you can say

  Illustrate this current behaviour.  Also demonstrate that with the
  "-w" option, we (correctly) hold off showing a "diff --git" header
  until actual differences have been found.  This also suppresses the
  header for merely stat-dirty files, which is inconsistent.

That is much better; thanks.