Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/5] "lib-diff" tests: make "README" and "COPYING" test data smaller

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2021 19:59:12 +0200

On Mon, Oct 04 2021, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 2, 2021 at 11:19 AM Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
> <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>> Follow-up the change in 459b8d22e54 (tests: do not borrow from COPYING
>> and README from the real source, 2015-02-15) by not shipping a full
>> copy of older versions of the top-level "COPYING" and "README" files.
>>
>> The tests that use them just need the small blurb at the top of
>> "COPYING" as test data, or mock data that's dissimilar. Let's provide
>> that with a "COPYING_test_data" function instead.
>
> I had to read this patch a couple of times before I understood what
> was going on.
>
> Your change is a definite improvement, but if the actual contents
> don't matter that much, maybe something like "lorum ipsum" would be
> even better.

The actual contents do matter to the existing tests, which e.g. in
t4003-diff-rename-1.sh munge the COPYING file and then assert the exact
resulting diff output.

Those tests could all be rewritten to use some new better-known test
content, but I figured that wasn't worth it in this case, as opposed to
just providing them with the data from the opening paragraphs the tests
are interested in / faking up a new "README".