Re: [PATCH v3 1/1] ls-tree.c: support `--oid-only` option for "git-ls-tree"

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 23, 2021, 02:28 UTC
Message-ID: <211123.868rxfwqdw.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqpmqrachl.fsf@gitster.g>

On Mon, Nov 22 2021, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> All of which (and more) would also be addressed in an obvious way by
>> just supporting --format as I suggested in
>> https://lore.kernel.org/git/211115.86o86lqe3c.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com/;
>> don't you think that's a better approach?
>
> That is what I would call over-engineering that I would rather not
> to have in low level plumbing.
>
> I am all for making _parsing_ the output from the tool easier by
> scripts; I am not interested in eliminating the _output_ by scripts.
> They should capture and format the pieces we output in any way they
> want.
>
> So, no, I do not think it is a better approach at all.

We've got --format for for-each-ref and family (also branch etc.), and for the "log" family.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying, do you think if we could go back and change it that the "FIELD NAMES" in git-for-each-ref (which is plumbing) would have been better done as --field-name=refname,objecttype,... etc?

Having used it extensively it's been very hard to have the flexibility of formatting, e.g. to specify arbitrary delimiters.

It also leaves the door open to teaching ls-tree etc. the %(if) syntax in the ref-filter, e.g. if you'd like to only print out certain data for certain object types or whatever.