From: Junio C Hamano Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:29:53 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH] fsck: do not print dangling objects by default Message-ID: <7vr4xg6pn2.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <20120227191846.GB1600@sigill.intra.peff.net> Jeff King writes: >> Given that, isn't it not just sufficient but actually better to instead >> add a new --no-dangling option and keep the default unchanged? > > ... Of course, it is fsck, so I wonder how often clueless people are > really running it in the first place (i.e., it is not and should not be > part of most users' typical workflows). If it is simply the case that > they are being told to run "git fsck" by more expert users without > understanding what it does, then I could buy the argument that those > expert users could just as easily say "git fsck --no-dangling". Yes, that was certainly part of my pros-and-cons analysis. If you run "git fsck" without "--no-dangling" without reading the manual, you may get confused, but that is *not* the primary audience. People who are curious can read the manual and figure it out, and the need for "fsck" is much rarer these days, compared to 2005 ;-) In that context, only large downsides of potentially breaking and having to adjust existing scripts remains without much upsides, if we were to switch the default.