Re: [PATCHv2] Document from line in patch format

[Magnus Damm <magnus.damm@gmail.com>]

On 10/3/05, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Oct 2005, Paul Jackson wrote:
> >
> > Document more details of patch format such as the "from" line
> > used to specify the patch author, and provide more references
> > for patch guidelines.
>
> One more issue: I'd really prefer that the "---" not be documented as
> "optional".
>
> Yes, my tools will also notice "diff -" and "Index: " at the start of the
> line as being markers for where the real patch starts, but that's a hack
> because people haven't been following the "---" rule. I'd much rather make
> it clear that the "---" is supposed to be there, to mark where the end of
> the comments are.

Huh, I thought that the first line in a unified patch started with
"---", and that the lines above were treated as garbage. Relying on
"diff -" or "Index: " seems wrong. Try diffing two files by "diff -u
file1 file2" and look at the output - the first line is "---"... This
extra "---" you are proposing seems like a workaround to me.

/ magnus