Re: [PATCH 1/4] usage: help the user help themselves

From: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Date: Aug 27, 2025, 21:27 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPig+cQkVP57n_FE6dJ0uxvai-J7usxKFp8gzfEbPY=Ytsd6=Q@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq349czcl8.fsf@gitster.g>

On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> writes:
> > That's still inviting unnecessary emails, isn't it? It would probably
> > be better add the qualification that people should send the email only
> > if they were unable to find any workable replacement. Perhaps:
> >
> >     - send an email to <git@...> to let us know
> >       that you still use this command and were unable
> >       to determine a suitable replacement
>
> In practice, people will respond to such an instruction by always
> sending an e-mail.  Asking others who sound as if they are promising
> to give answers when asked is cheaper than investigating themselves

Thanks for pointing out that my final editing made my suggested wording too succinct. What I really had in mind -- in conjunction with Kristoffer's patch [2/4] which provides hint(s) for replacing the command being retired -- was to reference the provided hints. So, something like this:

  - send an email to <...> to let us know
    that you still use this command and were unable
    to determine a suitable replacement using the hints
    provided here