Re: Re* [1.8.0] Provide proper remote ref namespaces

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Feb 14, 2011, 22:35 UTC
Message-ID: <20110214223557.GA13070@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <vpqr5bath2z.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>

On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 10:57:24PM +0100, Matthieu Moy wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

> Jay Soffian <jaysoffian@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Alternately, you could take the wall of text approach, which I was
> > trying to avoid:
> >
> >   push.default is unset; its implicit value is changing in 1.8.0 from
> >   'matching' to 'current'. To squelch this message and maintain the current
> >   behavior post-1.8.0, use 'git config [--global] push.default matching'. To
> >   squelch this message and adopt the 1.8.0 behavior now, use
> >   'git config [--global] push.default current'. See 'git help config' and
> >   search for 'push.default' for further information.
> 
> I actually like this, although it's a bit verbose: I think telling the
> user "something will change" without telling what is very frustrating,
> so the "from 'matching' to 'current'" part seems really good.

I like this one, too. It lays out what is happening and what the possible choices are. I don't think we should be afraid of a lot of text in a change-of-behavior message like this. It's _supposed_ to be annoying and catch their attention, and there are instructions right there for shutting it up.

We have used this strategy before, and I don't remember anyone complaining about "this message is too long".

> I'd remove the [] around the --global, to make the command
> cut-and-paste ready. Advanced users know whether to remove the
> --global, and newbies don't want to remove it.

Agreed, and put the commands on their own line for simpler cut-and-paste, like:

  push.default is unset; its implicit value is changing in 1.8.0 from
  'matching' to 'current'. To squelch this message and maintain the
  current behavior post-1.8.0, run:

    git config --global push.default matching

  To squelch this message and adopt the 1.8.0 behavior now, run:

    git config --global push.default current

  See 'git help config' and search for 'push.default' for further
  information.

I think the whitespace makes it easier to see there are two choices, and most people have some kind of triple-click-to-copy-whole-line in their terminal.

-Peff