Re: [PATCH 2/4] glossary: define committish (a.k.a. commit-ish)

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 19, 2013, 06:19 UTC
Message-ID: <20130619061938.GA2968@elie.Belkin>
In-Reply-To: <1371607780-2966-3-git-send-email-rhansen@bbn.com>

Hi,

Richard Hansen wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> --- a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
> @@ -82,6 +82,17 @@ to point at the new commit.
>  	to the top <<def_directory,directory>> of the stored
>  	revision.
>  
> +[[def_committish]]committish (also commit-ish)::
> +	A <<def_ref,ref>> pointing to an <<def_object,object>> that
> +	can be recursively dereferenced to a
> +	<<def_commit_object,commit object>>.

Usually I would expect that the string "4d1c565" is not a ref, but the glossary contains a different definition ("A 40-byte hex representation of a SHA-1 or ..."). I guess we need a shorter name for "extended SHA-1 syntax" (as described in gitrevisions(7)) that is a little less confusing.

Perhaps we can sidestep the issue by saying

	A parameter pointing to an <<def_object,object>> that
	can be recursively dereferenced to ...

since the most common use of "commitish" is in describing a command's syntax. I'm tempted to go even further and just call that a "commit parameter", explaining the more pedantic synonym here --- something like

	[[def_commitish]]commitish (also commit-ish)::
		A commandline parameter to a command that requires a
		<<def_commit,commit>>.
	+
	The following are all commitishes: an expression (see
	linkgit:gitrevisions[7]) directly representing a commit object,
	an expression naming a tag that points to a commit object, a
	tag that points to a tag that points to a commit, etc.

Thanks, Jonathan