Re: [PATCH 1/2] line-log: fix crash when combined with pickaxe options
From: Junio C Hamano <hidden>
Date: 2026-03-04 20:01:22
"Michael Montalbo via GitGitGadget" [off-list ref] writes:
From: Michael Montalbo <redacted> queue_diffs() calls diffcore_std() to detect renames so that line-level history can follow files across renames. When pickaxe options are present on the command line (-G and -S to filter by text pattern, --find-object to filter by object identity), diffcore_std() also runs diffcore_pickaxe(), which may discard diff pairs that are relevant for rename detection. Losing those pairs breaks rename following.
Shouldn't that be solved not by omitting the necessary call to diffcore_std(), but by using the "--pickaxe-all" option?
Note that this only fixes the crash. The -G, -S, and --find-object options still have no effect on -L output because line-log uses its own commit-filtering logic that bypasses the normal pickaxe pipeline.
I do not know exactly what -L really wants to do, but from the look at a patch like this, it smells like it is abusing the diffcore machinery. If it wants to follow the rename history for individual paths, even if the end-user's top-level command line option included pickaxe or other fancy diffcore options, should it be *reusing* the diff_options struct, prepared from the end-user request? Shouldn't it rather be using its own diffopt crafted for that rename tracking purpose, I have to wonder. Thanks.