Re: [PATCH] git: add -N as a short option for --no-pager

From: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
Date: Apr 25, 2018, 06:25 UTC
Message-ID: <08882cea-5dab-3cc7-33ac-cf938253a34a@kdbg.org>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqh8o05evv.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

Am 25.04.2018 um 02:05 schrieb Junio C Hamano:

Show 22 quoted lines

> Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> writes:
>> It is not uncommon to request that the output remains visible in
>> the terminal. For this, the option --no-pager can be used. But
>> it is a bit cumbersome to type, even when command completion is
>> available. Provide a short option, -N, to make the option easier
>> accessible.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
>> ---
> 
> Heh, I used to append "|cat", which is four keystrokes that is a bit
> shorter than " --no-pager", but that is only acceptable when you do
> not care about colored output ;-)
> 
> I am not absolutely certain about the choice of a single letter. I
> already checked we do not use "git -N cmd" for anything else right
> now, so I am certain about the availability, but I am not sure if
> capital 'N' is the best choice, when the other side is lowercase 'p'
> (and more importantly, the other side 'p' has mneomonic value for
> 'pagination', but 'N' merely stands for 'no' and could be negating
> anything, not related to pagination). But I agree that a short-hand
> would be welcome.

I considered -P, but thought that it would better be reserved for something related to "paths". We have --{html,man,info}-path, which would be served better with -[HMI]. That leaves --exec-path, which we would probably abbreviate as -x or -X. So, -P is perhaps not that bad after all.

We could also choose +p, for which there is some precedent in other POSIX tools to mean negated -p, but not in git, I think. Implementationwise, it is not that trivial, either, because the section handling options is guarded by a check that the word begins with a dash.

Perhaps --no-pager means also "unpaginated" (-u, -U), "linear" (-l, -L), "streamed" (-s, -S). Other ideas, anyone?

Show 14 quoted lines

> 
>> diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt
>> index 4767860e72..17b50b0dc6 100644
>> --- a/Documentation/git.txt
>> +++ b/Documentation/git.txt
>> @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
>>   [verse]
>>   'git' [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
>>       [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
>> -    [-p|--paginate|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
>> +    [-p|--paginate|-N|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
>>       [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
>>       [--super-prefix=<path>]
>>       <command> [<args>]