Re: possible usability issue in rebase -i?
- From
Baz <brian.ewins@gmail.com>
- Date
- Oct 27, 2009, 21:05 UTC
- Message-ID
- <2faad3050910271405k4a391184vb978b9b35484383b@mail.gmail.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <40aa078e0910270850u6ffec41cj372da11d9df533f@mail.gmail.com>
2009/10/27 Erik Faye-Lund <kusmabite@googlemail.com>:
Show 34 quoted lines
> On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Baz <brian.ewins@gmail.com> wrote: >> I've got a somewhat related minor usability issue with rebase -i. I >> accidentally typed something like 'git rebase -i -z' and got this >> message: >> >> error: unknown switch `z' >> usage: git-rebase [-i] [options] [--] <upstream> [<branch>] >> or: git-rebase [-i] (--continue | --abort | --skip) >> >> Available options are >> -v, --verbose display a diffstat of what changed upstream >> --onto ... rebase onto given branch instead of upstream >> -p, --preserve-merges >> try to recreate merges instead of ignoring them >> -s, --strategy ... use the given merge strategy >> -m, --merge always used (no-op) >> -i, --interactive always used (no-op) >> >> The last two lines were the surprise. It suggested to me that '-i' and >> '-m' were now the defaults for git-rebase - which of course they're >> not. A user would not know that this is actually reporting the flags >> that work for git-rebase--interactive, especially since that's not >> what the command calls itself. I wasn't sure about the best approach >> to fixing this - the only comparable commands that pass arbitrary >> flags down to an exec'd program make it clear what program is going to >> be called (usually git merge) and so interpreting errors is easier. >> >> It seems the intent here was to signal that the flags are different >> once a rebase is in progress, but this usage message is shown when >> rebase -i -z is called in any state. > > If that is the case, my instinct tells me that this information should > be reflected in the usage-string (instead of the parameter > description). Something like this?
I'm fine with this way of fixing it, but I'd make a few more changes...
Show 11 quoted lines
> > --->8--- > > diff --git a/git-rebase--interactive.sh b/git-rebase--interactive.sh > index 23ded48..3ed5f94 100755 > --- a/git-rebase--interactive.sh > +++ b/git-rebase--interactive.sh > @@ -13,15 +13,15 @@ > OPTIONS_KEEPDASHDASH= > OPTIONS_SPEC="\ > git-rebase [-i] [options] [--] <upstream> [<branch>]
Use the dashless form and be more consistent with the help - and mention '--root' here, it appears in the help below:
-git-rebase [-i] [options] [--] <upstream> [<branch>] +git rebase [--interactive | -i] [options] [--onto <newbase>] [--] <upstream> [<branch>] +git rebase [--interactive | -i] [options] --onto <newbase> --root [--] [<branch>]
> -git-rebase [-i] (--continue | --abort | --skip) > +git-rebase [-i] [-m] (--continue | --abort | --skip)
Again, dashless. And I'd not mention the useless -i here, the man page doesn't either:
-git-rebase [-i] (--continue | --abort | --skip) +git rebase (--continue | --abort | --skip)
Show 10 quoted lines
> -- > Available options are > v,verbose display a diffstat of what changed upstream > onto= rebase onto given branch instead of upstream > p,preserve-merges try to recreate merges instead of ignoring them > s,strategy= use the given merge strategy > -m,merge always used (no-op) > -i,interactive always used (no-op) > +m,merge use merging strategies > +i,interactive interactively edit commits
These two items are misplaced in the help (I think). They're not like abort, continue, skip, but then, the man page doesn't group those separately either.
+no-verify override pre-rebase hook from stopping the operation +root rebase all reachable commmits up to the root(s)
> Actions: > continue continue rebasing process > abort abort rebasing process and restore original branch
As above, remove the next two lines after your patch:
-no-verify override pre-rebase hook from stopping the operation -root rebase all reachable commmits up to the root(s)
-Baz
> > -- > Erik "kusma" Faye-Lund >