In some shells, such as bash and zsh, it's possible to use a command
substitution to provide the output of a command as a file argument to
another process, like so:
diff -u <(printf "a\nb\n") <(printf "a\nc\n")
However, this syntax does not produce useful results with git diff
--no-index.
On macOS, the arguments to the command are named pipes under /dev/fd,
and git diff doesn't know how to handle a named pipe. On Linux, the
arguments are symlinks to pipes, so git diff "helpfully" diffs these
symlinks, comparing their targets like "pipe:[1234]" and "pipe:[5678]".
Because this behavior is not very helpful, and because git diff has many
features that people would like to use even on non-Git files, add an
option to git diff --no-index to read files literally, dereferencing
symlinks and reading them as a normal file.
Note that this behavior requires that the files be read entirely into
memory, just as we do when reading from standard input.
Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sand...@crustytoothpaste.net>
---
This is a long-standing annoyance of mine, and it also makes some use
cases possible (for example, diffing filtered and non-filtered objects).
We don't include a test for the pipe scenario because I couldn't get
that case to work in portable shell (although of course it works in
bash). I have, however, tested it on both macOS and Linux. No clue how
this works on Windows.
Documentation/git-diff.txt | 5 +++++
diff-no-index.c | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
diff.c | 24 +++++++++++++-----------
diff.h | 1 +
diffcore.h | 1 +
t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
6 files changed, 75 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-diff.txt b/Documentation/git-diff.txt
index 030f162f30..4c4695c88d 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-diff.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-diff.txt
@@ -111,6 +111,11 @@ include::diff-options.txt[]
"Unmerged". Can be used only when comparing the working tree
with the index.
+--literally::
+ Read the specified files literally, as `diff` would,
+ dereferencing any symlinks and reading data from pipes.
+ This option only works with `--no-index`.
+
<path>...::
The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit
the diff to the named paths (you can give directory
diff --git a/diff-no-index.c b/diff-no-index.c
index 9414e922d1..2707206aee 100644
--- a/diff-no-index.c
+++ b/diff-no-index.c
@@ -75,7 +75,25 @@ static int populate_from_stdin(struct diff_filespec *s)
return 0;
}
-static struct diff_filespec *noindex_filespec(const char *name, int mode)
+static int populate_literally(struct diff_filespec *s)
+{
+ struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
+ size_t size = 0;
+ int fd = xopen(s->path, O_RDONLY);
+
+ if (strbuf_read(&buf, fd, 0) < 0)
+ return error_errno("error while reading from '%s'", s->path);
+
+ s->should_munmap = 0;
+ s->data = strbuf_detach(&buf, &size);
+ s->size = size;
+ s->should_free = 1;
+ s->read_literally = 1;
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static struct diff_filespec *noindex_filespec(const char *name, int mode,
+ struct diff_options *o)
{
struct diff_filespec *s;
@@ -85,6 +103,8 @@ static struct diff_filespec *noindex_filespec(const char
*name, int mode)
fill_filespec(s, &null_oid, 0, mode);
if (name == file_from_standard_input)
populate_from_stdin(s);
+ else if (o->flags.read_literally)
+ populate_literally(s);
return s;
}
@@ -101,14 +121,14 @@ static int queue_diff(struct diff_options *o,
if (S_ISDIR(mode1)) {
/* 2 is file that is created */
- d1 = noindex_filespec(NULL, 0);
- d2 = noindex_filespec(name2, mode2);
+ d1 = noindex_filespec(NULL, 0, o);
+ d2 = noindex_filespec(name2, mode2, o);
name2 = NULL;
mode2 = 0;
} else {
/* 1 is file that is deleted */
- d1 = noindex_filespec(name1, mode1);
- d2 = noindex_filespec(NULL, 0);
+ d1 = noindex_filespec(name1, mode1, o);
+ d2 = noindex_filespec(NULL, 0, o);
name1 = NULL;
mode1 = 0;
}
@@ -189,8 +209,8 @@ static int queue_diff(struct diff_options *o,
SWAP(name1, name2);
}
- d1 = noindex_filespec(name1, mode1);
- d2 = noindex_filespec(name2, mode2);
+ d1 = noindex_filespec(name1, mode1, o);
+ d2 = noindex_filespec(name2, mode2, o);
diff_queue(&diff_queued_diff, d1, d2);
return 0;
}
diff --git a/diff.c b/diff.c
index dc9965e836..740d0087b9 100644
--- a/diff.c
+++ b/diff.c
@@ -4282,18 +4282,18 @@ static void run_diff_cmd(const char *pgm,
fprintf(o->file, "* Unmerged path %s\n", name);
}
-static void diff_fill_oid_info(struct diff_filespec *one, struct index_state
*istate)
+static void diff_fill_oid_info(struct diff_filespec *one, struct diff_options
*o)
{
if (DIFF_FILE_VALID(one)) {
if (!one->oid_valid) {
struct stat st;
- if (one->is_stdin) {
+ if (one->is_stdin || one->read_literally) {
oidclr(&one->oid);
return;
}
if (lstat(one->path, &st) < 0)
die_errno("stat '%s'", one->path);
- if (index_path(istate, &one->oid, one->path, &st, 0))
+ if (index_path(o->repo->index, &one->oid, one->path,
&st, 0))
die("cannot hash %s", one->path);
}
}
@@ -4341,8 +4341,8 @@ static void run_diff(struct diff_filepair *p, struct
diff_options *o)
return;
}
- diff_fill_oid_info(one, o->repo->index);
- diff_fill_oid_info(two, o->repo->index);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(one, o);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(two, o);
if (!pgm &&
DIFF_FILE_VALID(one) && DIFF_FILE_VALID(two) &&
@@ -4389,8 +4389,8 @@ static void run_diffstat(struct diff_filepair *p, struct
diff_options *o,
if (o->prefix_length)
strip_prefix(o->prefix_length, &name, &other);
- diff_fill_oid_info(p->one, o->repo->index);
- diff_fill_oid_info(p->two, o->repo->index);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(p->one, o);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(p->two, o);
builtin_diffstat(name, other, p->one, p->two,
diffstat, o, p);
@@ -4414,8 +4414,8 @@ static void run_checkdiff(struct diff_filepair *p, struct
diff_options *o)
if (o->prefix_length)
strip_prefix(o->prefix_length, &name, &other);
- diff_fill_oid_info(p->one, o->repo->index);
- diff_fill_oid_info(p->two, o->repo->index);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(p->one, o);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(p->two, o);
builtin_checkdiff(name, other, attr_path, p->one, p->two, o);
}
@@ -5159,6 +5159,8 @@ int diff_opt_parse(struct diff_options *options,
options->flags.funccontext = 1;
else if (!strcmp(arg, "--no-function-context"))
options->flags.funccontext = 0;
+ else if (!strcmp(arg, "--literally"))
+ options->flags.read_literally = 1;
else if ((argcount = parse_long_opt("output", av, &optarg))) {
char *path = prefix_filename(prefix, optarg);
options->file = xfopen(path, "w");
@@ -5720,8 +5722,8 @@ static int diff_get_patch_id(struct diff_options
*options, struct object_id *oid
if (DIFF_PAIR_UNMERGED(p))
continue;
- diff_fill_oid_info(p->one, options->repo->index);
- diff_fill_oid_info(p->two, options->repo->index);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(p->one, options);
+ diff_fill_oid_info(p->two, options);
len1 = remove_space(p->one->path, strlen(p->one->path));
len2 = remove_space(p->two->path, strlen(p->two->path));
diff --git a/diff.h b/diff.h
index ce5e8a8183..7dedd3bcd1 100644
--- a/diff.h
+++ b/diff.h
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ struct diff_flags {
unsigned stat_with_summary:1;
unsigned suppress_diff_headers:1;
unsigned dual_color_diffed_diffs:1;
+ unsigned read_literally:1;
};
static inline void diff_flags_or(struct diff_flags *a,
diff --git a/diffcore.h b/diffcore.h
index b651061c0e..363869447a 100644
--- a/diffcore.h
+++ b/diffcore.h
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ struct diff_filespec {
#define DIRTY_SUBMODULE_UNTRACKED 1
#define DIRTY_SUBMODULE_MODIFIED 2
unsigned is_stdin : 1;
+ unsigned read_literally : 1;
unsigned has_more_entries : 1; /* only appear in combined diff */
/* data should be considered "binary"; -1 means "don't know yet" */
signed int is_binary : 2;
diff --git a/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh b/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh
index 6e0dd6f9e5..53e6bcdc19 100755
--- a/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh
+++ b/t/t4053-diff-no-index.sh
@@ -137,4 +137,32 @@ test_expect_success 'diff --no-index from repo subdir with
absolute paths' '
test_cmp expect actual
'
+test_expect_success 'diff --no-index --literally' '
+ echo "diff --git a/../../non/git/a b/../../non/git/b" >expect &&
+ test_expect_code 1 \
+ git -C repo/sub \
+ diff --literally ../../non/git/a ../../non/git/b >actual &&
+ head -n 1 <actual >actual.head &&
+ test_cmp expect actual.head
+'
+
+test_expect_success SYMLINKS 'diff --no-index --literally with symlinks' '
+ test_write_lines a b c >f1 &&
+ test_write_lines a d c >f2 &&
+ ln -s f1 s1 &&
+ ln -s f2 s2 &&
+ cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
+ diff --git a/s1 b/s2
+ --- a/s1
+ +++ b/s2
+ @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
+ a
+ -b
+ +d
+ c
+ EOF
+ test_expect_code 1 git diff --no-index --literally s1 s2 >actual &&
+ test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
test_done
