Re: [PATCH] fast-import: add 'ls' command

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 2, 2010, 17:37 UTC
Message-ID: <20101202173722.GE3962@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=HuPK+q_+hdkg4yK45UcoOA5PAGi4OmsojCsFa@mail.gmail.com>

Sverre Rabbelier wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 11:40, David Barr <david.barr@cordelta.com> wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

>> There are two forms of the 'ls' command, one that takes a tree-ish and
>> one relative to the index. Allow the tree-ish variant to be used anywhere
>> a comment is allowed. Allow the index variant to be used within a commit
>> where file change commands would be used.
>
> The commit message doesn't explain why the index variant isn't allowed
> anywhere a comment is allowed. I assume that's because there's a
> half-constructed index if you're in the middle of a modify operation
> or such?

I somewhat agree. Actually I would go further: the word "index" brings to mind .git/index and its in-core counterpart, so at the same time as documenting it better, we might look into making it more self- explanatory. Maybe a syntax like

	ls current "path/to/entry"

would make it clearer that this is about directory entries in fast-import's active commit and not necessarily the usual index file?

I am not sure what syntax other vcs-es use for tree-ishes. To avoid name clashes (what if 'current' is the low-level name of a tree-ish?), an alternative might be

	ls-tree :11 "path/to/historical/entry"
	ls "path/to/current/entry"

Hm (just musing). Jonathan