On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 03:30:44PM -0700, Elijah Newren wrote:

quoted

would become:

  msgs[ERROR_WOULD_OVERWRITE] = msgs[ERROR_NOUPTODATE_FILE] =
        string_list_appendf(&opts->msgs_to_free, msg, cmd, cmd)->string;

I don't know if that's worth it or not (I suspect that there are other
places where appendf would be handy, but I didn't poke around).

The strdup_strings=1 immediately before calling string_list_clear()
has been used in one other place in merge-recursive.c, and tripped up
the reviewer requiring a big code comment to explain it. (See the very
end of https://public-inbox.org/git/CABPp-BGh7QTTfu3kgH4KO5DrrXiQjtrNhx_uaQsB6fHXT+9hLQ@mail.gmail.com/
).  So there's already one other place in merge-recursive.c that might
benefit from such a change.

Thanks. I knew I had seen such hackery before, but it's nice to have a
specific site that would benefit.

IMHO the "nodup" variant of string_list is quite often a sign that
things are more complicated than they need to be. Even in cases that are
truly pointing to existing strings, is the complication really worth
saving a few strdups? Perhaps sometimes, but I have a suspicion it's
mostly premature optimization.

Maybe someone wants to tackle that as a separate patch series?  (Maybe
we make it a micro-project for future GSoC'ers?)

Yeah, I'm fine with these patches if somebody wants to do it separately.
It would be a good micro-project, but I'd also be just as happy if
somebody did it before next year. :)

-Peff