Re: git status always modifies index?

[Santiago Torres <santiago@nyu.edu>]

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On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 09:37:09AM -0600, Nathan Neulinger wrote:
> What I'm meaning is - why does it need to write the index back out to disk?
> 
> From looking at the code in builtin/commit.c it looks like it takes a lock
> on the index, collects the status, and then unconditionally rewrites the
> index file.
>
Hmm, I just took a look at those lines and I see what you mean. From
what I understand, this is to cache the result of the index computation
for ensuing git calls.

> I'm proposing that the update_index_if_able call not actually be issued if
> it would result in a ownership change on the underlying file - such as a
> simple case of root user or other privileged account issuing 'git status' in
> a directory.

I don't think this would be a desire-able default behavior. I'd wager
that running git status using different accounts is not a great idea ---
specially interacting with a user repository as root.

> I understand completely that it would be expected to be altered if the
> privileged user did a commit/add or any other operation that was inherently
> a 'write' operation, but doesn't seem like status should be one of those
> cases.

I think it's because of the reasons above. That being said, I don't know
what the rest of the community would think of something akin to a
--no-update-index type flag.

Cheers!
-Santiago.

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