From: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2025 20:33:36 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset [mode]`
Message-ID: <CALnO6CA=_xQWVWkUONPA_p6fiCjeMkq8pw0SmgXzo0sUPMHNFA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <a6d94c76-c9fe-4688-8eea-3bbab2b5dc07@app.fastmail.com>

On Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 4:28 PM Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Oct 18, 2025, at 12:53 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> > "Julia Evans via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> +`--soft`::
> >> +    Leaves your working directory unchanged. The index is left unchanged,
> >
> > Why not "leave your working tree files and the index unchanged"?
>
> The reason I say "working directory" instead of "working tree" is that
> I've seen a few comments from users saying that they don't know
> what "working tree" means. I'm still not sure what the reason for
> calling it a "working tree" is.

At a guess: suppose I have a non-bare repository ~/code/git with
corresponding ~/code/git/.git directory, but PWD=~/code/git/t. Then my
working directory is "…/t" but my working tree includes all the stuff
Git is tracking above me, too! (It also helps draw parallelism with
git-worktree, but that's a bit circular.)