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[PATCH 2/2] show-index: update documentation for index v2

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
May 28, 2018, 09:39 UTC
Message-ID
<20180528093923.GB20229@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<20180528093740.GA6902@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Commit 32637cdf4a (show-index.c: learn about index v2, 2007-04-09) changed the output format of show-index to include the object CRC32 but didn't update the documentation. Let's fix that and generally describe the output in more detail.

There are a few other fixes here while we're rewording:
 - refer to index-pack along with pack-objects, since either
   can create .idx files
 - use "linkgit:" for referring to other commands
 - expand the bit about verify-pack, giving reasons why you
   might want this command instead. I almost omitted this
   entirely, but referring to verify-pack might help a
   reader who is looking for more information.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
 Documentation/git-show-index.txt | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-index.txt b/Documentation/git-show-index.txt
index a8a9509e0e..424e4ba84c 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-show-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-show-index.txt
@@ -14,13 +14,27 @@ SYNOPSIS
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-Read the idx file for a Git packfile created with
-'git pack-objects' command from the standard input, and
-dump its contents.
+Read the `.idx` file for a Git packfile (created with
+linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] or linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) from the
+standard input, and dump its contents. The output consists of one object
+per line, with each line containing two or three space-separated
+columns:
 
-The information it outputs is subset of what you can get from
-'git verify-pack -v'; this command only shows the packfile
-offset and SHA-1 of each object.
+  - the first column is the offset in bytes of the object within the
+    corresponding packfile
+
+  - the second column is the object id of the object
+
+  - if the index version is 2 or higher, the third column contains the
+    CRC32 of the object data
+
+The objects are output in the order in which they are found in the index
+file, which should be (in a correctly constructed file) sorted by object
+id.
+
+Note that you can get more information on a packfile by calling
+linkgit:git-verify-pack[1]. However, as this command considers only the
+index file itself, it's both faster and more flexible.
 
 GIT
 ---
-- 
2.17.0.1391.g6fdbf40724
Previous: Jeff King
Message 5 of 5 in “minor show-index modernizations”
  1. 0/2 minor show-index modernizationsJeff King, May 28, 2018
  2. 1/2 make show-index a builtinJeff King, May 28, 2018
  3. Junio C HamanoMay 28, 2018
  4. Jeff KingMay 28, 2018
  5. 2/2 show-index: update documentation for index v2Jeff King, May 28, 2018

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