Re: [PATCH] Rename {git- => git}remote-helpers.txt

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 1, 2013, 05:37 UTC
Message-ID: <7v7gmsd26o.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20130201050343.GA29973@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

> What was the original rationale for the "gitfoo" form? Was it just to
> visually distinguish command manpages from non-command manpages? I can't
> remember the origins now.

b27a23e (Documentation: convert tutorials to man pages, 2008-05-24) turns "tutorial.txt" into "gittutorial.txt". Before that, there were git{attributes,cli,ignore,hooks,modules}.txt. They were added in this order, which reveals the true reason:

    hooks.txt
    gitignore.txt
    gitmodules.txt
    gitcli.txt
    hooks.txt => githooks.txt
    gitatributes.txt

Originally, we did not intend to name them as "git$concept.txt"; instead, we just said "$concept.txt". Hooks are "hooks", and we know we are discussing hooks in the context of Git, there was no reason to say "githooks". "gitignore" was about the file format, and it would have been insane to call it "ignore.txt". The same applies to "gitmodules.txt".

Things start to go in a strange direction when "cli" was added. We know that is about the command line interface in the context of Git, and it should have been "cli.txt". To make things worse, later "hooks.txt" took an example of "gitcli.txt" in the wrong way at a5af0e2 (Documentation: rename "hooks.txt" to "githooks.txt" and make it a man page, 2008-05-02).

In other way, I think this wasn't designed, but organically grown.