Re: [PATCH] grep: --full-tree

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

But that cuts both ways. If you change the default to full-tree, people will forget to put "." every time when asking to limit to the current directory.

Somebody more clueful in git than you who is called to help you in your repository when you have trouble. Obviously "you" in this sentence is not Jeff King, but I think you get the point.

And re-read what I wrote in its entirety and notice I am not disagreeing with you that the long term goal should be to have the default changed consistently for all command to do the full tree. The important first step is to make sure we are capable of doing both full tree and limit to current directory and "grep" is one example that cannot do both, and be it the --full-tree option or new /rooted-pathspec, we need some change _now_ that is backward compatible to pave the way for later changes. We give people convenient way to choose between the two, and _train_ them to express which way they want _without_ having to think. After that is achieved, the default does not matter much and we can safely change the default.

Think of it as a way to force existing users _unlearn_ the command specific default we currently have. Because any change of default will hurt them until that is done, we should start training them as early as possible.