Re: [PATCH v2 00/33] Yet more preparation for reference backends

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

My trick for checking the before/after of a patch is:

  1. Compile git without the patch.

  2. Apply the patch, then run the test (via ./t1234-*, which does not
     want to re-build git), confirm that it fails.

  3. Re-compile and re-run the test, confirming that it passes.

That also works well with "rebase -i" where you stop at the patch before
to compile.

I like it because it's simple and doesn't affect git's view (so you
can't accidentally commit the in-work-tree revert, for example). But
since there's nothing telling you what state the compiled git is in, it
can be easy to get confused.

True.  It also would not work well with debuggers, but it is usually
rare to need a debugger to verify the claim of a "fix" patch, so I
think the above is easier to use in practice.

Thanks.