How to debug git source code?

Question

I'm currently working on a project that needs to change the source code of git. I want to change the source code because when you setup a merge driver, git always runs it's diff algorithm first, but the git diff algorithm doesn't detects some conflicts that my merge tool detects.

So, I need to change the source code in order that git always uses my merge tool. To do that, I need to have a better understanding about the git merge code workflow, but reading million lines of git's source code is not an option. I need to compile and debug the git source code, but I have no idea of which is the better way and how to do it.

Please Help :)

Answer 1

So, after a time, I figured out how to solve my problem without messing around with the git source code. What I have done?

• My main problem was that the git diff algorithm doesn't find some conflicts that the semistructured merge tool that we created can find. So, to solve that I've created a custom fake diff driver so that my merge tool is always called to analyze the currente merge.

To do that, I edited the .gitconfig file and added this fake diff driver:

[diff "fake"] command = false

That solves my problem, because now the merge driver is always called :)