Re: error(?) in "man git-stash" regarding "--keep-index"

From: Martin Ågren <martin.agren@gmail.com>
Date: May 18, 2018, 10:41 UTC
Message-ID: <CAN0heSrJMFij9xt6RstLD16+2CxJ_HALer4iRL74AZQvH0VWRQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.21.1805180534170.6786@localhost.localdomain>

On 18 May 2018 at 11:37, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

>
>   toward the bottom of "man git-stash", one reads part of an example:
>
>   # ... hack hack hack ...
>   $ git add --patch foo            # add just first part to the index
>   $ git stash push --keep-index    # save all other changes to the stash
>                                               ^^^^^ ???
>
> i thought that, even if "--keep-index" left staged changes in the
> index, it still included those staged changes in the stash. that's not
> the impression one gets from the above.

So would the error be in the part of the man-page quoted below?

  If the --keep-index option is used, all changes already added to
  the index are left intact.

That is, this doesn't say *where* things are left intact (in the index? in the working tree?). The man-page does start with

  git-stash - Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away

which to me suggests that "leaving something intact" refers to precisely this -- the working directory.

Or is it the name of the option that trips you up? That is, you read the name as `--keep-the-index-as-is-but-stash-as-usual`, as opposed to `--keep-what-is-already-in-the-index-around`?

While I'm sure that some clarification could be provided, I'm tempted to argue that is exactly what the example provides that you quoted from.

Martin