Re: [PATCH] Revert 'diff-merges: let "-m" imply "-p"'
From: Jonathan Nieder <hidden>
Date: 2021-08-07 01:56:03
Hi, Junio C Hamano wrote:
I am somewhat puzzled. What does "can imagine" exactly mean and justify this change? A script author may imagine "git cat-file" can be expected to meow, but the command actually does not meow and end up disappointing the author, but that wouldn't justify a rename of "cat-file" to something else.
Sorry for the lack of clarity. I was describing what leads a script author to include "-m" in a place where it has no effect. You might be inclined to wonder why it matters _why_ a script author would do such a thing, if the script author is wrong. To me, it matters because it allows us to estimate how common it is for scripts to use "-m" in this way. The motivating example (Rust) shows that there is at least one script that _did_ use "-m" in this way. Rust has mitigation, but the above logic leads me to believe that they are not the only project that will be affected. And more generally, when a script author has a reasonable reason to believe something will work, they write scripts where it _does_ work, and then an update breaks their script, I think it's reasonable for them not to be happy. Jonathan