On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 12:49:00AM -0400, Jeff King wrote:

quoted text
> A week or two ago I came across yet another git-status annoyance: it
> needs write access to the repository to run (I was helping somebody with
> a task on a shared box, and I wanted to run status in their repository
> using my account).
> 
> I considered submitting a patch to fix this, but I think it is really
> more fundamental. I use status to get an overview of what's going on in
> a repo, but it is intimately related to a potential commit.

BTW, in case anybody is interested, here is the patch. Like I said, I
think we are better off with an alternative to "status", but maybe this
is useful to somebody anyway.

---
diff --git a/builtin-commit.c b/builtin-commit.c
index b01ad9f..8951364 100644
--- a/builtin-commit.c
+++ b/builtin-commit.c
@@ -217,7 +217,8 @@ static void create_base_index(void)
 		exit(128); /* We've already reported the error, finish dying */
 }
 
-static char *prepare_index(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
+static char *prepare_index(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
+		int status_only)
 {
 	int fd;
 	struct string_list partial;
@@ -270,7 +271,13 @@ static char *prepare_index(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	 * We still need to refresh the index here.
 	 */
 	if (!pathspec || !*pathspec) {
-		fd = hold_locked_index(&index_lock, 1);
+		fd = hold_locked_index(&index_lock, 0);
+		if (fd < 0) {
+			if (!status_only)
+				die("unable to lock index: %s",
+						strerror(errno));
+			return get_index_file();
+		}
 		refresh_cache(REFRESH_QUIET);
 		if (write_cache(fd, active_cache, active_nr) ||
 		    commit_locked_index(&index_lock))
@@ -869,7 +876,7 @@ int cmd_status(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	argc = parse_and_validate_options(argc, argv, builtin_status_usage, prefix);
 
-	index_file = prepare_index(argc, argv, prefix);
+	index_file = prepare_index(argc, argv, prefix, 1);
 
 	commitable = run_status(stdout, index_file, prefix, 0);
 
@@ -953,7 +960,7 @@ int cmd_commit(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	argc = parse_and_validate_options(argc, argv, builtin_commit_usage, prefix);
 
-	index_file = prepare_index(argc, argv, prefix);
+	index_file = prepare_index(argc, argv, prefix, 0);
 
 	/* Set up everything for writing the commit object.  This includes
 	   running hooks, writing the trees, and interacting with the user.  */
--
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