Re: [PATCH] notes-merge: use O_EXCL to avoid overwriting existing files

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

Why do we care that the file exists? Should we instead be using the
lockfile code to get exclusive access to it? That would also switch us
to doing the write-to-tempfile-and-rename dance, but that seems like it
would be a good thing. If we hit a write() error in the code now, we
leave a partially-written file in the notes worktree.

Yeah, I had the same thought when I saw the change.

I dunno. From my cursory reading of the code, it seems like we'd never
really expect this file_exists() to trigger in the first place, so
perhaps it's not worth thinking too hard about it.

Perhaps.