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Re: [PATCH/RFC] Make help behaviour more consistent

From
Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date
Mar 11, 2013, 20:44 UTC
Message-ID
<CD3017A6746B45FE8A5F242E4C597B51@PhilipOakley>
In-Reply-To
<7vppz592v5.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
From: "Junio C Hamano" <gitster@pobox.com>
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 7:02 PM
Show 24 quoted lines
> Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@grenoble-inp.fr> writes:
>
>> Kevin Bracey <kevin@bracey.fi> writes:
>>
>>> Two significant usability flaws here:
>>>  - If using man, "man git" to side-step "git help" is obvious. But 
>>> if
>>>    trying to use help.format=web, how to get the root html page? My
>>>    technique was "git help XXX" and click the "git(1) suite" link at 
>>> the
>>>    bottom. "git help git" is non-obvious and apparently undocumented
>>>    (it's not mentioned by "git", "git help", or "git help help"...).
>>
>> Can't this be solved by adding something like
>>
>>   See 'git help git' for general help about Git.
>>
>> to the output of "git help"? I think the fact that "git help" 
>> provides a
>> small amount of output (typically: fits on one screen) is a nice 
>> feature
>> that avoids scaring people too early with the actual doc.
>
> That sounds like a good direction to go in.

My earlier attempt, and Junio's reply http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/217352

It is tricky making sure that the message covers help for git, help's own help, the guides, and the commands, all in one compact usage line, while also covering the -h and --help options (which may not be known to new Git users on Windows, though probably obvious to Linux/Unix users).

Philip 
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 7 of 8 in “Make help behaviour more consistent”
  1. Make help behaviour more consistentKevin Bracey, Mar 10, 2013
  2. Philip OakleyMar 10, 2013
  3. Junio C HamanoMar 11, 2013
  4. Kevin BraceyMar 11, 2013
  5. Matthieu MoyMar 11, 2013
  6. Junio C HamanoMar 11, 2013
  7. Philip OakleyMar 11, 2013
  8. Junio C HamanoMar 11, 2013

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