This checkin goes along with the previous one, and makes it easier to use
all the normal git operations on temporary index files:
Add support for a "GIT_INDEX_FILE" environment variable.
We use that to specify alternative index files, which can be useful
if you want to (for example) generate a temporary index file to do
some specific operation that you don't want to mess with your main
one with.
It defaults to the regular ".git/index" if it hasn't been specified.
and it's particularly useful for doing things like "read a tree into a
temporary index file, and write the result out". For example, say that you
wanted to know what the Makefile looked like in a particular release,
you could do
GIT_INDEX_FILE=.tmp-index read-tree $release
GIT_INDEX_FILE=.tmp-index checkout-cache --prefix=old- Makefile
rm .tmp-index
and you're done. Your old Makefile version is now in "old-Makefile" (and
this is also where it's nice that checkout-cache refuses to overwrite
existing files by default: if you forgot or messed up the prefix, it's all
good).
You can also use it to test merges without screwing up your old index file
in case something goes wrong.
Did I already happen to mention that I think that the git model is the
best model ever, and that I'm just not an incredibly good-looking hunk and
becomingly modest, I'm smart too?
Linus
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