git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Why are there multiple ways to get the manual in Git?

From
AJAndrew Johnson <ajohnson388@gmail.com>
Date
Sep 17, 2016, 17:47 UTC
Message-ID
<CAM_5GX48gDAZSvAWnxO5n8uhYf8vmfAJ88_31_ewsQxyPfF7iA@mail.gmail.com>
Hi,

I was curious as to why the developers of Git decided to have three methods to get the manual for a verb. I am a developer who strives to understand Git to its fullest extent, and will share any information given on this question.

While reading Pro Git 2nd Ed. I came across these three methods:

$ git help <verb> $ git <verb> --help $ man git-<verb>

I tested all three to confirm they were equivalent.

What was the motivation behind the complication, if any? I presume most developers would not provide multiple commands that do the same thing for absolutely no reason, so I led myself to ask this question.

Respectfully, Andrew Johnson

Next: Fredrik Gustafsson
Message 1 of 8 in “Why are there multiple ways to get the manual in Git?”
  1. Andrew JohnsonSep 17, 2016
  2. Fredrik GustafssonSep 17, 2016
  3. Philip OakleySep 17, 2016
  4. Christian CouderSep 17, 2016
  5. Jakub NarębskiSep 18, 2016
  6. Philip OakleySep 18, 2016
  7. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2016
  8. Philip OakleySep 19, 2016

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.