From: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:34:07 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] describe: when failing, tell the user about options that work
Message-ID: <200910231034.09747.trast@student.ethz.ch>
In-Reply-To: <7vljj3dkid.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch> writes:
> 
> > @@ -259,7 +260,14 @@ static void describe(const char *arg, int last_one)
> >  			printf("%s\n", find_unique_abbrev(sha1, abbrev));
> >  			return;
> >  		}
> > -		die("cannot describe '%s'", sha1_to_hex(sha1));
> > +		if (unannotated_cnt)
> > +			die("cannot describe '%s'"
> > +			    " with only\nannotated tags. Try --tags.",
> 
> Did you mean UNannotated tags here?

No, but I think I see where the misunderstanding came from.

This code path means that we did not find a tag to describe with, but
we counted some unannotated tags (and because of how the counting
logic is wrapped, this only triggers when neither --all nor --tags are
in effect).

So I wanted it to say "it is impossible to describe this with the tags
you told me to use", which in this case are the annotated ones.

I tried to keep the general structure of the message ("cannot describe
..."), and with this restriction I can't seem to find a clearer
wording.  However, it could be written e.g.

  No annotated tags can describe '%s'.  However, there were
  unannotated tags: try --tags.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch