write_locked_index(): add flag to avoid writing unchanged index

We have several callers like

	if (active_cache_changed && write_locked_index(...))
		handle_error();
	rollback_lock_file(...);

where the final rollback is needed because "!active_cache_changed"
shortcuts the if-expression. There are also a few variants of this,
including some if-else constructs that make it more clear when the
explicit rollback is really needed.

Teach `write_locked_index()` to take a new flag SKIP_IF_UNCHANGED and
simplify the callers. Leave the most complicated of the callers (in
builtin/update-index.c) unchanged. Rewriting it to use this new flag
would end up duplicating logic.

We could have made the new flag behave the other way round
("FORCE_WRITE"), but that could break existing users behind their backs.
Let's take the more conservative approach. We can still migrate existing
callers to use our new flag. Later we might even be able to flip the
default, possibly without entirely ignoring the risk to in-flight or
out-of-tree topics.

Suggested-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Martin Ågren <martin.agren@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/rerere.c b/rerere.c
index 79203c6c1e..ea24d4c2f4 100644
--- a/rerere.c
+++ b/rerere.c
@@ -719,11 +719,9 @@ static void update_paths(struct string_list *update)
 			item->string);
 	}
 
-	if (active_cache_changed) {
-		if (write_locked_index(&the_index, &index_lock, COMMIT_LOCK))
-			die("Unable to write new index file");
-	} else
-		rollback_lock_file(&index_lock);
+	if (write_locked_index(&the_index, &index_lock,
+			       COMMIT_LOCK | SKIP_IF_UNCHANGED))
+		die("Unable to write new index file");
 }
 
 static void remove_variant(struct rerere_id *id)