wierd git show syntax

From: Geoff Russell <geoffrey.russell@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 30, 2010, 05:02 UTC
Message-ID: <AANLkTi=Zz-1dSC0imJ3NZXWcdvhXWXt-Kk94zwKe8+6Y@mail.gmail.com>

Hi,

$ git show XXXX:data/path/object.c

Gives me what I want, a cat of the objects contents. However for some files I get a message about ambiguous argument telling me to separate paths from revisions with '--'. Okay so I try that:

$ git show -- XXXX:data/path/object.c

But it gives me nothing

$ git show XXXX -- data/path/object.c

Gives me a git diff output for the object.

This is all with git 1.6.2.3

What's happening here? Why aren't all these equivalent?

Cheers, Geoff Russell

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