On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 07:11:34AM +0100, Dennis Kaarsemaker wrote: > > * If normal "diff" that follows symlinks by default has an option > > to disable it, then it is OK to also add --no-follow-symlinks > > that is only valid in the --no-index mode, so that we can mimick > > it better (I do not think this is the case, though). > > It does not, so no new option. There is "--no-dereference", but it is not that helpful: $ echo one >1 $ echo two >2 $ ln -s 1 sl1 $ ln -s 2 sl2 $ diff --no-dereference sl1 sl2 Symbolic links sl1 and sl2 differ $ diff --no-dereference sl1 2 File sl1 is a symbolic link while file 2 is a regular file So it does do the thing we are talking about here, but diff's handling of non-file content is not nearly as useful as git's. That said, I have no problem with proceeding without it and waiting until somebody actually shows up who really _wants_ --no-dereference. I won't be surprised if that never happens. -Peff