Re: [RFC 1/2] grep: only add delimiter if there isn't one already

From: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Date: Jan 20, 2017, 13:56 UTC
Message-ID: <20170120135612.GB17499@stefanha-x1.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqtw8u28u1.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>

On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 10:39:02AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 20 quoted lines

> Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com> writes:
> 
> > git-grep(1) output does not follow git's own syntax:
> >
> >   $ git grep malloc v2.9.3:
> >   v2.9.3::Makefile:       COMPAT_CFLAGS += -Icompat/nedmalloc
> >   $ git show v2.9.3::Makefile
> >   fatal: Path ':Makefile' does not exist in 'v2.9.3'
> >
> > This patch avoids emitting the unnecessary ':' delimiter if the name
> > already ends with ':' or '/':
> >
> >   $ git grep malloc v2.9.3:
> >   v2.9.3:Makefile:       COMPAT_CFLAGS += -Icompat/nedmalloc
> >   $ git show v2.9.3:Makefile
> >   (succeeds)
> 
> I am mildly negative on this one.  I suspect that the above example
> is a made-up one and you might have a more compelling real-world use
> case in mind, but at least the above does not convince me.

Another trailing delimiter example:

  $ git grep malloc v2.9.3:t/
  v2.9.3:t/:test-lib.sh:  setup_malloc_check () {

After Patch 1/2:

  v2.9.3:t/test-lib.sh:  setup_malloc_check () {

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> The end-user explicitly gave the extra ':' because she wanted to
> feed the tree object, not a tag that leads to the tree, for some
> reason.  I think the output should respect that and show how she
> spelled the starting point.  IOW, it is not "':' added unnecessarily
> by Git".  It is ':' added by the end-user for whatever reason.

v2.9.3::Makefile may convey that the user originally provided v2.9.3: but is that actually useful information? I don't see what the user will do with this information (and they should already know since they provided the command-line).

v2.9.3:Makefile can be copy-pasted or extracted by scripts for further git commands. That is useful.

Stefan