From: Kyle J. McKay <mackyle@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2016 11:46:19 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 10/10] get_short_sha1: list ambiguous objects on error
Message-ID: <2242637D-4C3B-4AF2-8BE4-823B3E1745D5@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20160926120036.mqs435a36njeihq6@sigill.intra.peff.net>

On Sep 26, 2016, at 05:00, Jeff King wrote:

>  $ git rev-parse b2e1
>  error: short SHA1 b2e1 is ambiguous
>  hint: The candidates are:
>  hint:   b2e1196 tag v2.8.0-rc1
>  hint:   b2e11d1 tree
>  hint:   b2e1632 commit 2007-11-14 - Merge branch 'bs/maint-commit- 
> options'
>  hint:   b2e1759 blob
>  hint:   b2e18954 blob
>  hint:   b2e1895c blob
>  fatal: ambiguous argument 'b2e1': unknown revision or path not in  
> the working tree.
>  Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
>  'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'

This hint: information is excellent.  There needs to be a way to show  
it on demand.

$ git rev-parse --disambiguate=b2e1
b2e11962c5e6a9c81aa712c751c83a743fd4f384
b2e11d1bb40c5f81a2f4e37b9f9a60ec7474eeab
b2e163272c01aca4aee4684f5c683ba341c1953d
b2e18954c03ff502053cb74d142faab7d2a8dacb
b2e1895ca92ec2037349d88b945ba64ebf16d62d

Not nearly so helpful, but the operation of --disambiguate cannot be  
changed without breaking current scripts.

Can your excellent "hint:" output above be attached to the -- 
disambiguate option somehow, please.  Something like this perhaps:

$ git rev-parse --disambiguate-list=b2e1
b2e1196 tag v2.8.0-rc1
b2e11d1 tree
b2e1632 commit 2007-11-14 - Merge branch 'bs/maint-commit-options'
b2e1759 blob
b2e18954 blob
b2e1895c blob

Any option name will do, --disambiguate-verbose, --disambiguate- 
extended, --disambiguate-long, --disambiguate-log, --disambiguate- 
help, --disambiguate-show-me-something-useful-to-humans-not-scripts ...

--Kyle