Re: [PATCH v3] add: warn when -u or -A is used without filepattern

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

The documentation update in 0fa2eb530fb7 (add: warn when -u or -A is used without pathspec, 2013-01-28) says:

    If no <pathspec> is given, the current version of Git defaults to
    "."; in other words, update all tracked files in the current directory
    and its subdirectories. This default will change in a future version
    of Git, hence the form without <filepattern> should not be used.

(oops, I just spotted a stray <filepattern> here, which came from a semantic mismerge---I'll fix it locally).

The above text says that we currently add what you have in your current directory and below, before it says this default will change. That makes it easier to connect "the default will change" and "form without pathspec should not be used" in readers' mind. It does not take that much imagination and intelligence to infer "it will change and will not limit to my current directory, so in the future I will have to be explicit when I want to do what I just told git to do".

But the warning text does not sound quite right.  This is what I get:

    warning: The behavior of 'git add --update (or -u)' with no path argument from a
    subdirectory of the tree will change in Git 2.0 and should not be used anymore.

There is a logic gap between "will change" and "should not be used" that is not filled like the text in the manual page does.