Re: The Gnus repository is switching to Git as of 2010-04-19

[Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi>]

* 2010-04-21 11:30 (UTC), Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 02:59, Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> wrote:
                          ^^^^^

You make it look like I spent my night writing about this version
control tool. :-) Timezone issues...

>> Not quite. Git will detect renames if at least 50% of file's content
>> remains the same. So, you can also modify files quite much unless the
>> renamed-modified file is not very small.
>
> Not quite :)
>
> At a very basic level Git just doesn't care. It just snapshots content
> from one revision to the next. It really is just "A Stupid Content
> Tracker".
>
> Rename detection is all done at the higher level by the Git porcelain.
> The 50% number you cited can be changed to anything you want by giving
> the diff commands the -B$PERCENT argument. See gitdiffcore(7).

Yes, I know that, and would add that this default 50% detection
threshold is based on the smaller of the two files.

I just wanted to point out that in practice Git (the tool) really
understands renames. I have heard too many times that "in Git you must
commit a rename and content changes separately" (which is wrong) and
"Git doesn't understand renames at all" (which is very wrong, from the
point of view of the tool's user). Technical people may talk about
repository formats and different layers on top of that but I guess some
of that talk has escaped the context and I keep hearing misinformation
about Git-the-whole-system's abilities.

Anyway, thank you. Your message shares very useful information.