[Bug] git stash generates a different diff then other commands (diff, add, etc) resulting in merge conflicts!

3 messages, 2 authors, 2016-06-15 · open the first message on its own page

[Bug] git stash generates a different diff then other commands (diff, add, etc) resulting in merge conflicts!

From: Luke San Antonio <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:58:22

Hi, my name's Luke!

Today, I had a problem merging a stash after immediately creating it.
This is exactly what I did!

git stash save --keep-index
git stash pop

And BAM! Merge conflict! This was especially weird because my file had
this in it (taken directly from my code!)

<<<<<<< Updated upstream
     *
     * It should be used and passed along to member objects by GameStates!
     *
=======
     *
     * It should be used and passed along to member objects by GameStates!
     *
quoted
quoted
quoted
quoted
quoted
quoted
Stashed changes
They are exactly the same!

Oh, by the way, I should mention that I did not edit any hunks to get
the index the way I wanted it, I have read that doing that causes
merge conflicts similar to this!

Then I got a hunch! I realized that git will refrain from applying a
hunk if it finds it already was applied exactly (that's correct
right?)... So I thought, maybe the patches are similar (represent the
same changes) but aren't *exactly* the same.

I was right!

After saving the stash I take a look at the diff: (git stash show -p)

     /*!
-     * \brief The default font renderer, global to all who have a pointer to
-     * the Game class.
+     * \brief The font renderer implementation, obtained from the config file.
+     *
+     * It should be used and passed along to member objects by GameStates!
      *
-     * It need not be used at all!
+     * \note It can be cached, but not between GameStates, meaning it should be
+     * cached again every time a new GameState is constructed!
      */

After that, I take a look at the diff in my index: (git diff --staged)

     /*!
-     * \brief The default font renderer, global to all who have a pointer to
-     * the Game class.
+     * \brief The font renderer implementation, obtained from the config file.
      *
-     * It need not be used at all!
+     * It should be used and passed along to member objects by GameStates!
+     *
+     * \note It can be cached, but not between GameStates, meaning it should be
+     * cached again every time a new GameState is constructed!
      */

Aha! A difference, a difference so tiny it went unnoticed by me, but not by git!

Now the housekeeping:

What I wanted to do:

Apply a stash on top of a 'kept' index.

What I did:

git stash save --keep-index
git stash pop

What I saw happen:

A merge conflict between the same changes (see above).

What I expected to see:

No merge conflict.

How are these different:

The conflict, which shouldn't happen since the changes introduced were the same!

-------------------------------------------------

It seems to me like the stash command is using a slightly different
diff algorithm...
Can anyone explain to me what's going on under the hood so I can
understand this subtle difference? Does anyone know?

Thanks in advance, I'm sure you all will be very helpful!
- Luke

Re: [Bug] git stash generates a different diff then other commands (diff, add, etc) resulting in merge conflicts!

From: Phil Hord <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:58:22

On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 3:07 AM, Luke San Antonio
[off-list ref] wrote:
Hi, my name's Luke!

Today, I had a problem merging a stash after immediately creating it.
This is exactly what I did!

git stash save --keep-index
git stash pop

And BAM! Merge conflict! This was especially weird because my file had
this in it (taken directly from my code!)
Luke,

I think the issue is that your working directory receives your cached
file when you say 'git stash --keep-index'.  When you restore the
stash, your previous working directory now conflicts with your new
working directory, but neither is the same as HEAD.

Here's a test script to demonstrate the issue, I think.  Did I get
this right, Luke?

 # cd /tmp && rm -rf foo
 git init foo && cd foo
 echo "foo" > bar &&  git add bar && git commit -mfoo
 echo "bar" > bar &&  git add bar
 echo "baz" > bar
 echo "Before stash  bar: $(cat bar)"
 git stash --keep-index
 echo "After stash  bar: $(cat bar)"
 git stash apply


The output looks like this:

$  git init foo && cd foo
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/foo/.git/
$ git commit --allow-empty -mInitialCommit
[master (root-commit) b5ecc7e] InitialCommit
$ echo "Bar" > bar &&  git add bar && git commit -mBar
[master 16d708b] Bar
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 bar
$ echo "bar" > bar &&  git add bar
$  echo "baz" > bar
$  echo "Before stash  bar: $(cat bar)"
Before stash  bar: baz
$  git stash --keep-index
Saved working directory and index state WIP on master: 16d708b Bar
HEAD is now at 16d708b Bar
$  echo "After stash  bar: $(cat bar)"
After stash  bar: bar
$  git stash apply
Auto-merging bar
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in bar
Recorded preimage for 'bar'
$ cat bar
<<<<<<< Updated upstream
bar
=======
baz
quoted
quoted
quoted
quoted
quoted
quoted
Stashed changes


Phil

Re: [Bug] git stash generates a different diff then other commands (diff, add, etc) resulting in merge conflicts!

From: Luke San Antonio <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:58:24

On 08/08/20130 04:54 PM, Phil Hord wrote:
Luke,

I think the issue is that your working directory receives your cached
file when you say 'git stash --keep-index'.  When you restore the
stash, your previous working directory now conflicts with your new
working directory, but neither is the same as HEAD.

Here's a test script to demonstrate the issue, I think.  Did I get
this right, Luke?

  # cd /tmp && rm -rf foo
  git init foo && cd foo
  echo "foo" > bar &&  git add bar && git commit -mfoo
  echo "bar" > bar &&  git add bar
  echo "baz" > bar
  echo "Before stash  bar: $(cat bar)"
  git stash --keep-index
  echo "After stash  bar: $(cat bar)"
  git stash apply
Actually no, in your script, the bar file has a modification in the working
tree which is in the same hunk as a change applied to the index. In my
project the changes that were added to the index are not modified further
in theworking tree.

--------

Not only that, but I found out why git was generated different patches!
I realized that when I removed a hunk appearing before the merge conflict
from the working tree and index, the merge conflict disappeared! Turns
out, we can forget about stashing for a minute!
First the hunk in my working tree:
@@ -56,12 +56,14 @@
      bool running_ = true;

      /*!
-     * \brief The default font renderer, global to all who have a 
pointer to
-     * the Game class.
+     * \brief The font renderer implementation, obtained from the 
config file.
       *
-     * It need not be used at all!
+     * It should be used and passed along to member objects by GameStates!
+     *
+     * \note It can be cached, but not between GameStates, meaning it 
should be
+     * cached again every time a new GameState is constructed!
       */
-    std::unique_ptr<FontRenderer> font_renderer_ = nullptr;
+    FontRenderer* font_renderer_ = nullptr;

      int run(int argc, char* argv[]);

Most of this is unimportant, but notice the line number spec:@@ -56,12 
+56,14 @@
The line number of this hunk doesn't change! Then I addeda few lines *above*
this hunk, (around line 30 I think). Here is the diff again:
@@ -56,12 +58,14 @@
      bool running_ = true;

      /*!
-     * \brief The default font renderer, global to all who have a 
pointer to
-     * the Game class.
+     * \brief The font renderer implementation, obtained from the 
config file.
+     *
+     * It should be used and passed along to member objects by GameStates!
       *
-     * It need not be used at all!
+     * \note It can be cached, but not between GameStates, meaning it 
should be
+     * cached again every time a new GameState is constructed!
       */
-    std::unique_ptr<FontRenderer> font_renderer_ = nullptr;
+    FontRenderer* font_renderer_ = nullptr;

      int run(int argc, char* argv[]);

Notice the new line number spec:@@ -56,12 +58,14 @@

It moves two lines down, because I added those two lines before it, 
makes sense!
But also notice that the patches are different, just because of the two 
lines
above it!

I thought I might be able to fix this problem by changing the new 
diff.algorithm
config option to 'patience', but it seems to only affect how patches 
look, not
how they are stored internally... Same problem!

Also, I'm wondering why that line was picked up by git if the patches 
don't match,
shouldn't git give me a conflict with the whole hunk, or is the system 
smarter
than that?

What if merging suppressed the conflict if both possibilities are the 
same? Isn't
that reasonable, or is there some 1% where this could cause (silent but 
deadly)
data loss.

Sorry, I'm just rambling...

Anyway, thanks for your help Phil!
- Luke
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