Re: [PATCH] terminology tweak: prune -> path limiting
- From
Matthew DeVore <matvore@google.com>
- Date
- Dec 10, 2018, 18:57 UTC
- Message-ID
- <CAMfpvhKh3xewUY-g9oVJq1o=G3w9EspoQUHc1edHUx3AD4OWfg@mail.gmail.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <xmqqo99v5vnc.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
On Sat, Dec 8, 2018 at 5:36 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
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> > Matthew DeVore <matvore@google.com> writes: > > > In the codebase, "prune" is a highly overloaded term, and it caused me a > > lot of trouble to figure out what it meant when it was used in the > > context of path limiting. Stop using the word "prune" when we really > > mean "path limiting." > > path limiting is also used for two purposes. "pruning", which is to > cull the side branches that do not contribute the changes made to > the paths we are interested in, and showing only the changes to the > paths that match pathspec.
Thank you for the clarification re: side branches.
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> > AFAIK, "prune" is also used to describe unreachable loose objects, > but that use is fairly isolated and have little risk of being > confusing too much. Are there other uses to make you consider it > "highly overloaded"?
This is what I found:
git prune - cull unreachable loose objects git fetch --prune - remove remote-tracking refs that no longer exist at source. Also note "--prune-tags" option git notes prune - remove notes for non-existing/unreachable objects git worktree prune - prunes "administrative" files git prune-packed - removes loose objects that are also in pack files git filter-branch --prune-empty - removes commits that become empty as a result of rewriting.
It seems there are three general categories of the use of the term - - to remove things from a view (e.g. in path limiting) - to remove loose objects for efficiency (git prune, git prune-packed) - to remove other things for either efficiency or to reduce cognitive overhead (git worktree prune, git fetch --prune)
... and each of these categories has 2+ subcategories.
When I tried to figure out what "prune" and "prune_data" ("data" is quite vague, so these two fields read like "prune_1" and "prune_2") referred to in "revision.h", I basically did "grep -rn prune" and looked through the results, but there were too many uses of the term "prune" to pinpoint its meaning. If I used an IDE I might have been able to "find usages" of struct revs's prune field, and I probably *should have* done that, but I didn't have an IDE prepared and I figured it wasn't important. Then an hour or so later I realized I was still being confused by this term, and set out to figuring out what it actually meant.
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> > My gut feeling is that the result is not reducing "overloading" in a > meaningful way, and this change is not worth the churn, but it > depends on the answer to the above question. > > Thanks.