Re: [PATCH 01/10] Better "Changed but not updated" message in git-status

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 28, 2010, 22:09 UTC
Message-ID: <20101028220956.GC16125@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <7vaaly9eji.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

>>  # Changes to be committed:
>>  #   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
>>  #
>>  #       new file:   foo.c
>>  #
>>  # Changes not staged for commit:

[...]

Show 6 quoted lines

> Hmm, perhaps we'd want to restate the first one as well to read
> 
>     Changes staged for commit:
>       (use "git reset HEAD <path>..." to unstage)
> 
> for consistency as well?

My first impression is no. Since the main purpose of this text is to be shown by "git commit", it might even make sense to say:

# Changes to be committed: # (use "git reset -- <path>..." to unstage) # # new file: foo.c # # Changes not to be committed: # (use "git add <path>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <path>..." to discard changes in working # directory) # # typechange: bar.c

> Listing by filename gives a false impression that we are talking about the
> whole file contents, and looks a bit confusing until it is explained to
> you why when the same file appears in both of the first two sections.

Iould be nice if the "staged changes" section gave a hint that there were unstaged changes present. Maybe something like the "unsaved file" indicator used by some text editors:

	new file:    foo.c*

Show 9 quoted lines

> I've been wondering ever since this thread started if we can phrase it
> better to make it even less confusing.  E.g.
> 
>     Files with changes to be committed:
>         new file: foo.c
>     Files with changes that won't be committed:
>         modified: foo.c
> 
> might help reduce the confusion.

I fear that it can be misparsed as (Files with changes) to be committed. More importantly, I think Matthieu was right earlier: it is not the files but the changes that matter.

So when changing a file and marking it executable, I would even like to see:

	modified:    foo.c
	mode change: foo.c

even if that is not what git does today.