Re: [PATCH/alternative/raw and rough] setup.c: denote repo wide pathspecs by ':'

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 1, 2011, 14:50 UTC
Message-ID: <7vsjv6evy4.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikzSsBZ757p4gnwsUrGNmRKHsxrqXeqPKyLihjT@mail.gmail.com>

Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:

> No. ':foo' as a reference to 'foo' in index is a SHA1-extended syntax
> and I think we try to avoid ambiguation when a sha1-extended syntax
> may look like a path or vice versa.

Very true.

Just as a thought experiment (I am skeptical about this whole "this is from root" prefix idea to begin with, but I don't want to shoot an idea down prematurely when there may still be untold gems I haven't seen in it):

    $ git grep -e frotz .../

to abbreviate "I don't bother to count my ../" might be an alternative, though.

The reason I am skeptical about the "from root prefix" is because I do not see a way to make it compatible with other meaningful pathspecs.

    $ cd Documentation
    $ git grep -e frotz '*.txt'

would find frotz in all *.txt files in Documentation (and its subdirectories), if the command takes "relatigve to cwd".

It also is very clear that

    $ cd Documentation
    $ git grep --full-tree -e frotz '*.txt'

would find those anywhere, inside or outside Documentation.

On the other hand, it is natural to expect that

    $ git grep -e frotz ".../*.txt"

should find *.txt files _only_ at the root level, so it is not as useful as the --full-tree (or --root).