Jeff King wrote: > On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 02:19:15AM -0800, Jonathan Nieder wrote: >> In combination with patch 3, this changes the meaning of packet_read() >> without changing its signature, which could make other patches >> cherry-picked on top change behavior in unpredictable ways. :( >> >> So I'd be all for this if the signature changes (for example to put >> the fd at the end or something), but not so if not. > > True. Though packet_read has only existed since last June, only had one > callsite (which would now conflict, since I'm touching it in this > series), and has no new calls in origin..origin/pu. So it's relatively > low risk for such a problem. I don't know how careful we want to be. I was unclear. What I am worried about is that someone using a version of git without this patch will try some yet-to-be-written patch using packet_read from the mailing list and not notice that they are using the wrong function. For example, if someone is using 1.7.12.y or 1.8.1.y and wants to try a patch from after the above, they would get subtly different and wrong results. The rule "change the name or signature when breaking the ABI of a global function" is easy to remember and follow. I think we want not to have to be careful at all, and such rules can help with that. :) Thanks, Jonathan -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html