Re: [PATCH] Documentation/git-reset.txt: Use HEAD~N syntax everywhere (unify examples)

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 2, 2008, 02:59 UTC
Message-ID: <7v7iho6p2m.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <3asc6spe.fsf@blue.sea.net>

Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> writes:

> The examples in the documentation refer to multiple ~N commits. To
> Keep the exampels unified with the same syntax, use ~N in all examples.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jari Aalto <jari.aalto AT cante.net>

Show 6 quoted lines

> -$ git reset --soft HEAD^      <1>
> +$ git reset --soft HEAD~1     <1>
> -<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
> +<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD~1, and HEAD~2) were bad
> -$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state  <2>
> +$ git reset --soft HEAD~1 ;# go back to WIP state <2>

I personally think this is a regression, not an improvement.

People need to refer to the HEAD^ (one commit ago) much more often than HEAD~N for larger values of N. And we should give them exposure to HEAD^ and HEAD^^; both are faster and easier to type and read than HEAD~1 and HEAD~2.

Especially about HEAD~1, nobody sane would type that. It is there only for consistency.

Otherwise, twisted people would complain "I can say HEAD~4 instead of HEAD^^^^ and it helps brevity; but it is inconsistent that I cannot say HEAD~1 instead of HEAD^".