Re: [Outreachy][PATCH] abspath: reconcile `dir_exists()` and `is_directory()`

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

"Miriam R." <mirucam@gmail.com> writes:

> Ok, then after discussion, finally the issue tasks would be:
>
> - Add path_exists() that will work same as file_exists(), keeping for
> now the latter.
> - Use path_exists() instead of dir_exists() in builtin/clone.c.

Sounds about right.

> And also:
> - Rename is_directory() to dir_exists(), as it is the equivalent to
> path_exists()/file_exists(), isn't it?

I wouldn't go there in the same series, if I were doing it.  I'd
expect that such a patch would be more noisy than it is worth if
done in a single step.  In order to avoid becoming a hindrance to
other topics in flight, an ideal series to do so would support the
same functionality with both old and new names, convert code that
use the old name to use the new name, possibly in multiple patches
to avoid unnecessary textual conflicts (i.e. some of these patches
made to areas that are seeing active development will be discarded
and need to be retried later when the area is more quiet) and then
finally the function wither the old name gets removed.

You would not want to mix the first two bullet points that are
relatively isolated with such a long transition.