Kaartic Sivaraam <kaartic.sivaraam@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> @@ -16,12 +16,13 @@ add_file () { >> owd=$(pwd) >> cd "$sm" >> for name; do >> - echo "$name" > "$name" && >> + echo "$name" >"$name" && >> git add "$name" && >> test_tick && >> git commit -m "Add $name" >> done >/dev/null >> - git rev-parse --verify HEAD | cut -c1-7 >> + git rev-parse --verify HEAD >out && >> + cut -c1-7 out > > In any case, I believe we can avoid the 'cut' altogether in both places > by doing something like this instead: > > git rev-parse --short=7 HEAD Ah, I missed the fact that this was a helper function and most of the error status is discarded anyway. For example, we still run the rev-parse even after the for loop fails. If the focus of this test script were to ensure that rev-parse works correctly, being careful to catch its exit status might have had a good value, but for that, all the other operations that happen in this helper function (including the "what happens when the loop body fails for $name that is not at the end of the argument list?") must also be checked for their exit status in the first place. Since that is not done, and since testing rev-parse should not have to be part of the job for submodule test, the net effect of the above change has quite dubious value---it clobbered a file 'out' that may be used by the caller. Doing "cd" without introducing a subshell is a bit harder to fix, as test_tick relies on the global counter in the topmost process. It can be done, but I do not think it is worth doing here. Most of the users of this helper function call it in var=$(add_file ...) subshell anyway (so test_tick is incrementing the timestamp independently for each caller and discarding the resulting timestamp). As a NEEDSWORK comment added in the series says, this script may need a bit more work. I agree with you that the split of "rev-parse | cut -c1-7" into two statements and clobbering 'out' is a bad change---that part should be reverted. The style change on 'echo "$name" >"$name"' line is OK, though. Thanks. > My quick check shows the test script is happy with this change. > >> cd "$owd" >> } >> commit_file () { >> @@ -125,7 +126,8 @@ commit_file sm1 && >> head3=$( >> cd sm1 && >> git reset --hard HEAD~2 >/dev/null && >> - git rev-parse --verify HEAD | cut -c1-7 >> + git rev-parse --verify HEAD >out && >> + cut -c1-7 out >> ) >> >> test_expect_success 'modified submodule(backward)' "