It seems that it's not too hard to make commits such that the standard way of git format-patch -> email -> git am fails. For example: [mst@tuck ~]$ mkdir gittest [mst@tuck ~]$ cd gittest/ [mst@tuck gittest]$ git init Initialized empty Git repository in /home/mst/gittest/.git/ [mst@tuck gittest]$ echo AA > a.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ git add a.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ git commit [master (root-commit) 46e2cd1] original 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 a.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ echo AA > b.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ echo BB > c.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ diff -u b.txt c.txt > bc.diff [mst@tuck gittest]$ echo "this change" > commitlog.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ echo >> commitlog.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ cat bc.diff >> commitlog.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ echo BB >> a.txt [mst@tuck gittest]$ git commit -a -F commitlog.txt [master c5f40b2] this change 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) [mst@tuck gittest]$ git format-patch HEAD~1.. 0001-this-change.patch [mst@tuck gittest]$ git reset --hard HEAD~1 HEAD is now at 46e2cd1 original [mst@tuck gittest]$ git am 0001-this-change.patch Applying: this change error: sha1 information is lacking or useless (c.txt). error: could not build fake ancestor Patch failed at 0001 this change hint: Use 'git am --show-current-patch' to see the failed patch When you have resolved this problem, run "git am --continue". If you prefer to skip this patch, run "git am --skip" instead. To restore the original branch and stop patching, run "git am --abort". A work around is "don't do it" - avoid putting anything that looks like a unified diff in the commit log. However: - Users don't know what other restrictions exist - User sending the patch has no way to detect failure, it's only visible to user receiving the patch Ideas: - validate commit log and warn users? - find a way to escape text in git format-patch, and unescape in git am? Thanks, -- MST
