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    "Assume unchanged" git · 5f73076c
    Junio C Hamano authored
    
    
    This adds "assume unchanged" logic, started by this message in the list
    discussion recently:
    
    	<Pine.LNX.4.64.0601311807470.7301@g5.osdl.org>
    
    This is a workaround for filesystems that do not have lstat()
    that is quick enough for the index mechanism to take advantage
    of.  On the paths marked as "assumed to be unchanged", the user
    needs to explicitly use update-index to register the object name
    to be in the next commit.
    
    You can use two new options to update-index to set and reset the
    CE_VALID bit:
    
    	git-update-index --assume-unchanged path...
    	git-update-index --no-assume-unchanged path...
    
    These forms manipulate only the CE_VALID bit; it does not change
    the object name recorded in the index file.  Nor they add a new
    entry to the index.
    
    When the configuration variable "core.ignorestat = true" is set,
    the index entries are marked with CE_VALID bit automatically
    after:
    
     - update-index to explicitly register the current object name to the
       index file.
    
     - when update-index --refresh finds the path to be up-to-date.
    
     - when tools like read-tree -u and apply --index update the working
       tree file and register the current object name to the index file.
    
    The flag is dropped upon read-tree that does not check out the index
    entry.  This happens regardless of the core.ignorestat settings.
    
    Index entries marked with CE_VALID bit are assumed to be
    unchanged most of the time.  However, there are cases that
    CE_VALID bit is ignored for the sake of safety and usability:
    
     - while "git-read-tree -m" or git-apply need to make sure
       that the paths involved in the merge do not have local
       modifications.  This sacrifices performance for safety.
    
     - when git-checkout-index -f -q -u -a tries to see if it needs
       to checkout the paths.  Otherwise you can never check
       anything out ;-).
    
     - when git-update-index --really-refresh (a new flag) tries to
       see if the index entry is up to date.  You can start with
       everything marked as CE_VALID and run this once to drop
       CE_VALID bit for paths that are modified.
    
    Most notably, "update-index --refresh" honours CE_VALID and does
    not actively stat, so after you modified a file in the working
    tree, update-index --refresh would not notice until you tell the
    index about it with "git-update-index path" or "git-update-index
    --no-assume-unchanged path".
    
    This version is not expected to be perfect.  I think diff
    between index and/or tree and working files may need some
    adjustment, and there probably needs other cases we should
    automatically unmark paths that are marked to be CE_VALID.
    
    But the basics seem to work, and ready to be tested by people
    who asked for this feature.
    
    Signed-off-by: default avatarJunio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
    5f73076c