Re: [PATCH 00/19] Add git-list-files

From: Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 2, 2014, 11:45 UTC
Message-ID: <CACsJy8DBkGVhaJnCTs9_E+g6FYYr4V-6S=XB5wrGBFPjHnEu1A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20141202054226.GA1948@peff.net>

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 03:55:48PM +0700, Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy wrote:
>
>> This is something else that's been sitting in my tree for a while now.
>> It adds "git list-files", intended to be aliased as "ls" with your
>> favourite display options.
>
> When I read the subject, I thought "why isn't this called git-ls?". Then
> when I read this paragraph, I thought "if the point is for everybody to
> make their own ls alias, why do we need list-files at all, instead of
> just adding options to ls-files"?
>
> I'll let you decide which (if any) you'd like to answer. :)
>
> My guesses:
>
>   1. If it were "git-ls", it would stomp on existing aliases people have
>      constructed.

Yes, Matthew Moy (I think) at least had this git-ls alias and he did complain. Also we could not agree on what should be the good defaults for git-ls if it's built in.

>   2. If it is a wrapper around ls-files, then the options may be
>      constrained; ls-files already squats on useful options like "-d"
>      (which, if we are matching traditional ls, is more like our "-t").

Also right. I want to keep option names close to GNU ls.

> As a side note, I wonder if it would be sensible to whitelist some
> commands as porcelain, and allow aliases to override them (either
> entirely, or just to add-in some options).

Agreed. Maybe not all porcelain (some like git-branch almost functions like plumbing).

We also need away to stop alias (e.g. in scripts). In scripts I can specify full path to a command to make sure I won't hit an alias. I guess we can't do the same here. The closet to "full path" is git-cmd form, as opposed to "git cmd" form) but I think we don't want to bring back git-cmd. Maybe just a "git --no-alias cmd" and GIT_NO_ALIAS..

And if people now can override standard commands, I think it makes sense to ship a default alias set (with lower priority than user-defined aliases). After all people need to check twice if the command they type really means what they think it is..

-- 
Duy