Re: [PATCH] git.c: show usage for accessing the git(1) help page

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date: May 15, 2019, 06:36 UTC
Message-ID: <78710149-4e0c-01a1-ccbf-592adadbfd08@iee.org>
In-Reply-To: <20190515001717.GA138048@google.com>

Hi Emily,

On 15/05/2019 01:17, Emily Shaffer wrote:

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> On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 04:24:50PM +0100, Philip Oakley wrote:
>> It is not immediately obvious how to use the `git help` system
>> to show the git(1) page, with all its background and ccordinating
>> material, such as environment variables.
>>
>> Let's simply list it as the last few words of the last usage line.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
>> ---
>> This follows from the discussion <3cd065d1-9db5-f2e6-ddff-aa539746d45e@iee.org>
>> ---
>>   git.c | 2 +-
>>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/git.c b/git.c
>> index 2324ac0b7e..9a852b09c1 100644
>> --- a/git.c
>> +++ b/git.c
>> @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ const char git_usage_string[] =
>>   const char git_more_info_string[] =
>>   	N_("'git help -a' and 'git help -g' list available subcommands and some\n"
>>   	   "concept guides. See 'git help <command>' or 'git help <concept>'\n"
>> -	   "to read about a specific subcommand or concept.");
>> +	   "to read about a specific subcommand or concept. Or use 'git help git'.");
> I'm not sure the wording makes sense here. It sounds like you're saying,
> "Or use 'git help git' to read about specific subcommands or concepts."
> which isn't really what I think you're trying to say.

True.

>
> What about, "Or, use 'git help git' for a detailed guide of the Git
> system as a whole."

I had thought about a longer sentence, but was squeezing it in, given that we (I) had to add in the other parts of that help footnote...

>
> (I'm still not sure that's quite it - since `git help git` mostly
> details the flags you can pass to git before invoking a subcommand. But
> I'm not sure that `git --help` is the place to say that...)

It's more that we are updating the system's response to a misunderstood command, hopefully with something that includes a link to our putative top level man page. It's tricky to get to without already knowing it's there.

Show 7 quoted lines

>
>>   
>>   static int use_pager = -1;
>>   
>> -- 
>> 2.21.0.windows.1.1517.gbad5f960a3.dirty
>>

Philip