Re: [PATCH] Use proper syntax for replaceables in command docs

From: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Date: May 24, 2018, 20:05 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPig+cR91cEj1EdA4JvQQED0HJ2Db-LyrWCB_8VdC6uwT47KbA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.21.1805241552080.6217@localhost.localdomain>

On Thu, May 24, 2018 at 3:54 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> The standard for command documentation synopses appears to be:
>
>   [...] means optional
>   <...> means replaceable
>   [<...>] means both optional and replaceable
>
> So fix a number of doc pages that use incorrect variations of the
> above.
>
> Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>
> ---
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
> @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-check-attr - Display gitattributes information
> -'git check-attr' [-a | --all | attr...] [--] pathname...
> +'git check-attr' [-a | --all | attr...] [--] <pathname>...
>  'git check-attr' --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | attr...]

Don't you also want "<attr>"?

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-ignore.txt b/Documentation/git-check-ignore.txt
> @@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ git-check-ignore - Debug gitignore / exclude files
> -'git check-ignore' [options] pathname...
> +'git check-ignore' [<options>] <paths>...

Earlier in the patch, you changed "pathname" to "<pathname>", but here you change "pathname" to "<paths>", which is inconsistent.

It's also inconsistent and odd to say "<paths>..." (with the "..."). Seems better just to say "<pathname>..." to match existing practice.