Re: git a/xyz or b/xyz

[Shaoxuan Yuan <shaoxuan.yuan02@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 7:09 PM Shaoxuan Yuan <shaoxuan.yuan02@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 6:50 PM Fabrice Creuzot <code@luigifab.fr> wrote:
> >
> > Hello
> >
> > When we are reading a "git diff", all paths are prefixed with "a/" and
> > "b/". Example:
> > diff --git a/xyz
> > index 4aa4b5230..1c2b8b69e 100644
> > --- a/xyz
> > +++ b/xyz
> > @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
> >
> >
> > With my terminal, I double click on the path to select the full path for
> > copy.
> >
> > Then, when I paste: "git log a/xyz",
> >   git says: unknown revision or path not in the working tree
> >
> > Ok, I need to remove the "a/" or "b/".
> > But, is git can understand that "a/xyz" is "xyz" because "a/xyz" does
> > not exist?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> Hi Fabrice,
>
> You can think that "a/" stands for "before" or "old content", whereas
>  "b/" stands for "after" or "new content". Paths are prefixed with these
> to indicate which is before and which is after.
>
> For example, when you call "git diff", it is to "view the changes you made
> relative to the index (staging area for the next commit)".
> In this case, "before" is the index, namely "a/", whereas "after"
> is your current working tree, namely "b/".

A more precise way of saying is "a/" stands for source, whereas "b/"
stands for destination.

-- 
Thanks & Regards,
Shaoxuan