Filetimes updated by patch

[Stephen Darnell]

>...
> The binary diffs appeared in GIT 1.4.0:
> http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0606.1/0934.html
>
> The manpages for git-diff and git-apply mention the --binary switch
> http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-diff-files.html
> http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-apply.html
> 
> Stefan.

Thanks Stefan, I looked at these links and I must admit that the exact format and limitations are as clear as melting perma-frost. The most detail was in the git-apply:

--allow-binary-replacement, --binary

    When applying a patch, which is a git-enhanced patch that was
    prepared to record the pre- and post-image object name in full, and
    the path being patched exactly matches the object the patch applies
    to (i.e. "index" line's pre-image object name is what is in the
    working tree), and the post-image object is available in the object
    database, use the post-image object as the patch result. This allows
    binary files to be patched in a very limited way.

End quote - clear huh?

Has anyone tried (able to try) a simple test with a binary file to see 
what gets produced?

Git however, does seems to support very limited filename escaping 
(space, tab, and backslash) using backslash, and that could easily be 
extended to arbitrary (inc. unicode) escaping.  NB I'm thinking more 
about the capabilities of the format more than the tools and/or 
filesystems that might be used with that format.

Regards,
  Stephen