Re: [PATCH] git-archive: document CWD effect

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Apr 8, 2007, 23:21 UTC
Message-ID: <7virc68nc1.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <4618DFEE.8080707@lsrfire.ath.cx>

René Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx> writes:

Show 15 quoted lines

> Nick Williams schrieb:
>> git-archive only archives the current working dir (and sub dirs) even
>> when no paths are specified. For example, if I do
>> 
>> git archive --format=tar --prefix=git-1.5.0.2/ HEAD > ~/test/test.tar
>> 
>> from with in the Documentation dir, then I only get part of the tree.
>> 
>> Is this the intended behavior?
>> 
>> The reason I ask is that from my (mis)reading of the man page I expect
>> to get all of the tree unless paths are specified.
>
> Sorry about the late reply.  Would these two additional manpage lines
> clear things up for you?

While the updated description reflects what the command does more accurately, I am not sure if it is a desired behaviour. For one thing, --format=tar (by the way, maybe we would want to make this the default when none is specified?) adds the comment that is readable by get-tar-commit-id that claims the tarball contains the named commit, giving a false impression that it is the whole thing. Since people who _really_ want a subtree can just say "git archive --format=tar HEAD:Documentation", I suspect we may be better off not doing "current directory only" by default. This changes the behaviour, but (1) it affects only people who run from a subdirectory, (2) it is counterintuitive that your location in the working tree matters when you say "I want a tarball of that commit", and (3) it is an undocumented behaviour anyway.

So my suggestions are:

 (1) When no pathspec is given, archive the whole tree, even
     when you are in a subdirectory.

 (2) When a pathspec is given, produce a partial tarball limited
     to the named spec like we do now, but do not say it is a
     tarball of the named commit (i.e. get-tar-commit-id would
     say empty).

An alternative to (2) would be to say "$commit:Documentation" instead, but that has a little issue of what to do when more than one pathspecs are given.