Re: [PATCH] [doc] Use `man git` to teach users how to navigate the docs

From: Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 28, 2026, 21:02 UTC
Message-ID: <CCB1855E-759F-4741-BE49-23FC6DD402A6@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <pull.2242.git.1790627574093.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

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> Le 28 sept. 2026 à 16:33, Julia Evans via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> a écrit :
> 
> From: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
> 
> Many existing users of Git don't know how Git's documentation is
> structured, and a lot of folks have expressed frustration that `man git`
> doesn't make it easy to find out how to get help with using Git.
> 
> Explain how Git's help system works in `man git`
> (`git push -h` gives a short help, `git push --help` is the full docs),
> since it's a slightly unusual approach.

[snip]

> Mention `git help` instead of `giteveryday` for now, which does a better
> job of giving an overview of everyday commands.

[snip]

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>    I thought about mentioning git help push and/or man git-push, but (from
>    a Mastodon survey I did) git push --help is the one users are most
>    familiar with, it's most similar to how other Unix tools work, and it
>    makes the description really clear and concise (-h for short help,
>    --help for long help).

I appreciate the concision. I think “git help cmd” is quite a bit more useful than “git cmd --help” because the former supports aliases, HTML formats, and various other documents. I don’t know how to fit that in with what you already proposed, though; I doubt that mentioning bare “git help” will push anyone towards its manual to discover “git help cmd”, although the bottom of the help output mentions it as a possibility.

[Unrelated] One thing I think Git is really missing is easy access to the stuff in “git --html-path”. I have a custom script for that, but AFAICT even “git help” in web mode can’t open all of it.