{"thread":{"id":"9100","subject":"Proposal about --help options and man calls","startedAt":"2007-07-18T21:50:23Z","lastAt":"2007-07-19T10:42:30Z","messageCount":5,"participants":["David Kastrup","Junio C Hamano","Brian Gernhardt","Steven Grimm"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"47776","messageId":"85y7hdwfds.fsf@lola.goethe.zz","threadId":"9100","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"Proposal about --help options and man calls","fromName":"David Kastrup","fromEmail":"dak@gnu.org","sentAt":"2007-07-18T21:50:23Z","receivedAt":"2007-07-18T21:50:23Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"dak@gnu.org","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/52141349?v=4"},"body":"\nFrequently, git somecommand --help will call the man command to\ndisplay help pages. I think that when it does so, it should pass the\nvalue of the GIT_PAGER variable copied into the PAGER variable: the\npaging happens on behalf of git here.\n\n-- \nDavid Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum\n"},{"id":"47779","messageId":"7v644h715y.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net","threadId":"9100","inReplyTo":"85y7hdwfds.fsf@lola.goethe.zz","subject":"Re: Proposal about --help options and man calls","fromName":"Junio C Hamano","fromEmail":"gitster@pobox.com","sentAt":"2007-07-18T23:16:41Z","receivedAt":"2007-07-18T23:16:41Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"gitster@pobox.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/54884?v=4"},"body":"David Kastrup writes:\n\n> Frequently, git somecommand --help will call the man command to\n> display help pages. I think that when it does so, it should pass the\n> value of the GIT_PAGER variable copied into the PAGER variable: the\n> paging happens on behalf of git here.\n\nHmph. Is that to help people who uses GIT_PAGER but no PAGER,\nor have both but set it differently (setting both and in the\nsame way does not make much sense). But what it means is that\n\"git command --help\" and \"man git-command\" would be paged\ndifferently. I highly doubt it is really desirable.\n\nWhat's the reason to set GIT_PAGER and PAGER differently to\nbegin with? Can people give examples of the reason why?\n\nBy the way, I would understand if there is a request to honor\nGIT_LESS environment and if it exists export its value instead\nof FRSX as LESS when we spawn the pager. As some people do not\nwant S nor R for other programs but do want them for colored git\noutput that tends to consist of long lines. This is a slightly\nrelated topic, but different from the issue you raised in your\nmessage.\n"},{"id":"47781","messageId":"85ejj5wats.fsf@lola.goethe.zz","threadId":"9100","inReplyTo":"7v644h715y.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net","subject":"Re: Proposal about --help options and man calls","fromName":"David Kastrup","fromEmail":"dak@gnu.org","sentAt":"2007-07-18T23:28:47Z","receivedAt":"2007-07-18T23:28:47Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"dak@gnu.org","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/52141349?v=4"},"body":"Junio C Hamano writes:\n\n> David Kastrup writes:\n>\n>> Frequently, git somecommand --help will call the man command to\n>> display help pages. I think that when it does so, it should pass the\n>> value of the GIT_PAGER variable copied into the PAGER variable: the\n>> paging happens on behalf of git here.\n>\n> Hmph. Is that to help people who uses GIT_PAGER but no PAGER,\n> or have both but set it differently (setting both and in the\n> same way does not make much sense). But what it means is that\n> \"git command --help\" and \"man git-command\" would be paged\n> differently. I highly doubt it is really desirable.\n>\n> What's the reason to set GIT_PAGER and PAGER differently to begin\n> with? Can people give examples of the reason why?\n\nIf I call command --help, I don't want a pager barfing at me. Never.\nI have scrollback for that. It is my choice when I page and when I\npage not. There are manual pages who go through 50 pages or so,\nhowever. There are commands that fundamentally are connected with a\npager. man is, for example. But most cases where git calls a pager\n(and that includes his way of calling man without getting asked for it\nexplicitly) utterly surprise me. So I set GIT_PAGER to cat and hoped\nthat it would get git to behave. Sometimes it does, sometimes it\ndoesn't.\n\n-- \nDavid Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum\n"},{"id":"47803","messageId":"4CE1D7B3-23AF-4BED-862C-B225B29E4811@silverinsanity.com","threadId":"9100","inReplyTo":"7v644h715y.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net","subject":"Re: Proposal about --help options and man calls","fromName":"Brian Gernhardt","fromEmail":"benji@silverinsanity.com","sentAt":"2007-07-19T03:49:47Z","receivedAt":"2007-07-19T03:49:47Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"benji@silverinsanity.com","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/e06c101dbc25c68114d859b4a9ec7cf8a2c52fd2b0270ef0eac0e2e63ff22311?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"\nOn Jul 18, 2007, at 7:16 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:\n\n> What's the reason to set GIT_PAGER and PAGER differently to\n> begin with? Can people give examples of the reason why?\n\nI currently have GIT_PAGER (actually, core.pager) set to tig. Tig \nhas lots of useful features for visualizing history and jumping \nbetween patches and logs.\n\nBut for everything that isn't git, less is far better.\n\n~~ Brian\n"},{"id":"47834","messageId":"469F4016.9090402@midwinter.com","threadId":"9100","inReplyTo":"85ejj5wats.fsf@lola.goethe.zz","subject":"Re: Proposal about --help options and man calls","fromName":"Steven Grimm","fromEmail":"koreth@midwinter.com","sentAt":"2007-07-19T10:42:30Z","receivedAt":"2007-07-19T10:42:30Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"koreth@midwinter.com","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/71b4d2e8b62f168bdc9e9205341159e3567003b4f9e2127c617c5fa0a1f5bad2?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"David Kastrup wrote:\n> So I set GIT_PAGER to cat and hoped that it would get git to behave. \n\nFYI, you can also set GIT_PAGER to an empty value to completely disable \npaging. However, \"cat\" does the same thing -- it is special cased in \npager.c to do the same thing as an empty value.\n\nHmm, I guess that could stand to be documented. Patch forthcoming.\n\n-Steve\n"}]}