Re: git-branch manpage question

From: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Date: Sep 16, 2008, 16:25 UTC
Message-ID: <48CFDE0E.4020806@drmicha.warpmail.net>
In-Reply-To: <957350.34177.qm@web27803.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Mark Struberg venit, vidit, dixit 16.09.2008 16:46:

Show 19 quoted lines

> Hi!
> 
> I think i found an inconsistency in the documentation of the
> git-branch command:
> 
> *snip* --track:: .... Set the branch.autosetupmerge configuration
> variable to `false` if you want 'git-checkout' and 'git-branch' to
> always behave as if '--no-track' were given... *snip*
> 
> and
> 
> *snip* --no-track:: Ignore the branch.autosetupmerge configuration
> variable.
> 
> *snip*
> 
> So, the description of branch.autosetupmerge is referencing
> --no-track and vice versa, thus the effective documentation is
> essentially missing as far as I understand.

Well, what's missing is the explanation that "--no-track" is the opposite of "--track". Do we really need to stress that?

The explanation of "--track" is in the "....", you left it out in your quote.

Maybe the formulation is a bit suboptimal because it's squeezed more or less forcibly into the option list concept. At "--track" there is a description of what is meant by a tracking branch configuration. Now, the logical flow is:

If --track is given, set up tracking. If --no-track is given, don't set up tracking. If none is given, check branch.autosetupmerge: If it is false, don't set up tracking. If it is always, set up tracking. If it is unset (or true), check what kind of start point we branch off from: If it is a remote, set up tracking. If it is not a remote, don't set up tracking.

Admittedly, the description at --track is a bit contrived. But if you read the DESCRIPTION section before the options things should become clear. Maybe git-branch(1) should reference git-config(1).

Cheers, Michael