Re: what should "git clean -n -f [-d] [-x] <pattern>" do?

> Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Now we are going to introduce "dry run" option "-n". Most simple and
>> obvious way to do it is to set internal flag "dry_run" and then at every
>> invocation of "remove(file_name)" put an if(dry_run) that will just
>> print(file_name) instead or removing it. Let's suppose we did just that.
>> We get this behavior:
>>
>>   $ git clean -n
>>   fatal: clean.requireForce defaults to true and neither -i nor -f given; refusing to clean
>>   $ git clean -f -n
>>   would remove "a"
>>   would remove "b"
>>   $ git clean -f -f -n
>>   would remove "a"
>>   would remove "b"
>>   would remove "sub/a"
>>   $
>>
>> I see this as logical, clean, and straightforward behavior, meeting user
>> expectations for "dry run" option, so I suggest to do just that.
>
> I think we are saying the same thing.  If the original semantics
> were "you must force with -f to do anything useful", instead of "you
> must choose either forcing with -f or not doing with -n", then it
> would have led to the above behaviour.
>
> The thing is, it is way too late to change it that way without
> breaking too many folks, and that is the problem.