Re: [PATCH 1/4] magic pathspec: add tentative ":/path/from/top/level" pathspec support

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 8, 2011, 15:05 UTC
Message-ID: <7vtye84wc3.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTi=YK-4TOxoD1qR8TO4SymLK6sPnQA@mail.gmail.com>

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

Show 8 quoted lines

> On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 11:18 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>
>> This is so that you can say ":/.gitignore" and do not have to say
>> ":/:.gitignore".
>
> But then, say people have a file named @foo at top dir. They can write
> ":/@foo" to address the file. Some time later we decide to use '@' as
> magic, how can we re-train user's fingers?

You don't. The primary goal of short form is to be short to type from the command line, and if you are in doubt, you can always disambiguate by saying ":/:@foo", and you can use the terminating colon even if you are sure "@" is not a magic in your version of git.

Scripts can and should use the long form for readability and compatibility.

> Although I quite like it, one less keystroke for me.

Exactly. It is Ok if the short form is a bit more complex to explain than the long form (which should be very easy to explain). The goal of the short form is to make the end result is short to type, once the user understands the rules.