Re: [PATCH RFC 1/3] add: add new --exclude option to git add

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date: Mar 15, 2015, 20:45 UTC
Message-ID: <D9562ECC995343B3A51D449DC2B46CBC@PhilipOakley>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqtwxmt43h.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

From: "Junio C Hamano" <gitster@pobox.com>

Show 9 quoted lines

> Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> writes:
>
>> The commit message is missing the important justification for why 
>> this
>> new option is desirable, and why only git-add needs it.
>
> I think that is a very good point.  I actually do not see why this
> option is ever needed, in a modern world that has the negative
> pathspec magic.

Isn't the problem one of "how are users to discover such magic". The fact we call it 'magic' (a sleight of hand...) may be why Alexander felt the need for the extra option.

Maybe He/We would be better off adjusting the documentation such that these 'magic' capabilities are brought out of their hiding places into regular view - e.g. a paragraph within the 'git add' documentation (and/or other commands) showing how such excludes are easily done with a few simple keystrokes....

'git help revisions' doesn't appear to cover it. I'm not sure we even mention "negative pathspec" in the documentation (apart from rel notes 1.9.0 & 2.3.0).

Maybe Alexander could change itch to: make the "magic negative pathspec" capability more visible?

Show 11 quoted lines

>
> Is there a reason why this is undesiable
>
>    $ git add -- \*.c ':!secret.c'
>
> and has to be spelled as
>
>    $ git add --exclude=secret.c -- \*.c
>
> I do not see why...
> --

Philip