Re: [PATCH] user-manual: mention git gui citool (commit, amend)

From: J. Bruce Fields <bfields@fieldses.org>
Date: Aug 2, 2007, 18:18 UTC
Message-ID: <20070802181853.GB31885@fieldses.org>
In-Reply-To: <11858118802945-git-send-email-prohaska@zib.de>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2007 at 06:11:20PM +0200, Steffen Prohaska wrote:

> git gui is especially useful because it allows to select diff hunks.
> Now it is at least mentioned in the user-manual.

Hm, OK. I think the user manual's only departures from the commandline right now are a few mentions of gitk (which don't actually explain how to use it; I assume that's self-explanatory).

But this seems interesting enough to be worth a mention, thanks.

Show 17 quoted lines

> +Another approach for creating commits is git gui:
> +
> +-------------------------------------------------
> +$ git gui citool
> +-------------------------------------------------
> +
> +starts the commit tool (Note, "`git gui`" starts the full gui, which
> +provides more options).
> +
> +Beyond the basic operation of staging and unstaging complete files,
> +git gui can also selectively stage diff hunks.  You can do so by
> +selecting a modified or staged file and right-click on the diff view
> +in the lower part of the gui. A pop-up will appear that lets you
> +select a specific hunk and stage or unstage it for the next commit.
> +This is particular useful for slicing large, ugly commits into smaller
> +pieces, for example when cherry-picking (see
> +<<reordering-patch-series>>).

I wonder whether we could get away with just the brief list of features ("lets you view changes in the index and the working file, lets you individually select diff hunks for inclusion in the index"), and leave the how-to stuff to online guit-gui help, if it's necessary?

Also, I like the verb "stage" as a way to explain the part of the index file in creating commits, but I've been consistently using the word "index" throughout the user manual, and I think that's consistent with the rest of the documentation--so don't avoid it here.

--b.