Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 2/4] cat-file: teach cat-file a '--literally' option

From: Charles Bailey <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2015 01:28:07 +0100

On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 10:29:34PM +0530, Karthik Nayak wrote:
> Currently 'git cat-file' throws an error while trying to
> print the type or size of a broken/corrupt object. This is
> because these objects are usually of unknown types.
> 
> Teach git cat-file a '--literally' option where it prints
> the type or size of a broken/corrupt object without throwing
> an error.

I'm sorry to come in with such a fundamental question at such a late
revision of this patch series, but am I the only person to wonder about
the choice of option name?

To me, cat-file already output objects "literally" (without -p) as
opposed to show. From the description, it feels more like it should be
"--unchecked" or perhaps something better that I haven't thought of?

The option isn't a true opposite of hash-object's --literally because
that also allows the creation of known types with invalid contents (e.g.
corrupt trees) whereas cat-file is quite happy to show the _contents_ of
such corrupt objects even without --literally.

Charles.