Re: [PATCH v2 1/4] rev-parse: fix some options when executed from subpath of main tree

[Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>]

On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 10:13 AM, SZEDER Gábor <szeder@ira.uka.de> wrote:
> Quoting Mike Rappazzo <rappazzo@gmail.com>:
>> I'll try to reword this to make it indicate that the value isn't
>> always incorrect.
>
> Not sure I understand your intention about rewording, in particular that
> "isn't always incorrect" part.  Just to make sure there is no
> misunderstanding let's have a look at the two broken cases:
>
>    $ git -C t/ rev-parse --git-common-dir
>    t/.git
>
> Obviously wrong.
> This is what you correctly described in the commit message as
> "incorrectly returns a path which starts 'sub/path/.git'.
>
>    $ git -C t/ rev-parse --git-path objects
>    .git/objects
>
> Wrong as well.  It would be correct if we were at the top of the working
> tree, but we are not.  It must be relative to the directory where '-C t/'
> brought us.
> Your description in the commit message implies that '--git-path <path>'
> is wrong in the same way as '--git-common-dir' is, i.e. in this case
> would also return the relative path starting with the subdirectory.
> That is apparently not the case.
>
> My point in the previous email was that both are wrong when executed in
> a subdir of the working tree, but they are wrong in different ways.  And
> they are always wrong when executed from a subdir of the working tree.

This explanation argues strongly in favor of placing each fix in a
separate patch[1] so that each commit message can be tailored to
precisely match the problem being fixed. Bundling the corresponding
tests with the fix would be a bonus; no need for a lead-in patch
introducing the tests en masse, and no need for test_expect_failure.

[1]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/293001/