On Thu Aug 20, 2020 at 7:57 PM EDT, Junio C Hamano wrote: > I do not see why we want to stress the last part after ", even if". > The safety mechanism insists on the working tree file and the index > entry to be identical, and the location where in the file the > difference is, is irrelevant, whether it is outside the area the > incoming patch touches, or it overlaps. It's because this is the confusing part of the option - it's easy to grasp "apply the patch to both the working copy and the index", but that's not exactly what the option does, it applies only in the case of identical preimages (and therefore, identical postimages). If you do want to apply it to both the working copy and the index, which aren't identical (e.g., you're a heavy worktree mangler and "add -p" user, like me), this points you towards invoking it twice, once with no option and once with "--cached".
