Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>> As "git apply" is primarily meant to work on "git diff" output, and
>> it does not necessarily work on an arbitrary mbox (think: MIME), I
>> do not think "if you do not want to make commit, use apply" is a
>> good suggestion to begin with. They serve completely different
>> purposes and take different form of inputs.
>
> Okay. I think I use 'git am' to apply individual mails, which also can
> be applied with 'git apply';
Yes for 'am', sometimes for 'apply' (think: MIME).
> "This command applies patches from email (e.g. the output of 'git
> format-patch', or an mbox), preserving metadata and creating commits.
Yeah, something like that.
This command takes a mbox, each message in which is a piece of
e-mailed patch, which typically is output of `git format-patch`.
For each message, the patch text is applied to the current
branch and recorded as a commit, with the authorship information
and log message taken from the e-mailed message.
> Use <git-apply> to apply patches (e.g. the output of 'git format-patch'
> or 'git diff') to the worktree without creating commits."
Calling 'git format-patch' output 'patches' the same way as 'git
diff' output is inviting confusion. The plural 'patches' makes
the confusion worse.
Use `git apply` when you have diff (e.g. `git diff` output) to
use to modify the working tree files and optionally the index.
Thanks.
