Re: GIT 0.99.9

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Date: Oct 31, 2005, 04:05 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0510302000310.27915@g5.osdl.org>
In-Reply-To: <7v4q6yl6wv.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> 
> I've somewhat updated git-rev-list documentation and tried to
> categorize the options into commit selectors and presentation
> modifiers.  The documentation for commands you mentioned in your
> message all talk about them describing only frequently used
> options, and refer the user to rev-list documentation.  I am not
> sure this would be enough.

I don't think people really follow the links or think very abstractly at all in the first place.

So I was thinking more of some explicit examples. I actually think every command should have an example in the man-page, and hey, here's a patch to start things off.

Of course, I'm not exactly "Mr Documentation", and I don't know that this is the prettiest way to do this, but I checked that the resulting html and man-page seems at least reasonable.

And hey, if the examples look like each other, that's just because I'm also not "Mr Imagination".

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
---

I think most people understand a lot better from practice than from theory, and that an example of real usage is much more likely to make people udnerstand a command than just listing what it can do.

diff --git a/Documentation/git-log.txt b/Documentation/git-log.txt
index 13a3998..9cac088 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-log.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-log.txt
@@ -30,6 +30,24 @@ OPTIONS
 	Show only commits between the named two commits.
 
 
+Examples
+--------
+git log --no-merges::
+
+	Show the whole commit history, but skip any merges
+
+git log v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi::
+
+	Show all commits since version 'v2.6.12' that changed any file
+	in the include/scsi or drivers/scsi subdirectories
+
+git log --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk::
+
+	Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file 'gitk'.
+	The "--" is necessary to avoid confusion with the *branch* named
+	'gitk'
+
+
 Author
 ------
 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
diff --git a/Documentation/git-whatchanged.txt b/Documentation/git-whatchanged.txt
index e6f57d9..6c150b0 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-whatchanged.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-whatchanged.txt
@@ -51,6 +51,20 @@ OPTIONS
 	However, it is not very useful in general, although it
 	*is* useful on a file-by-file basis.
 
+Examples
+--------
+git-whatchanged -p v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi::
+
+	Show as patches the commits since version 'v2.6.12' that changed
+	any file in the include/scsi or drivers/scsi subdirectories
+
+git-whatchanged --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk::
+
+	Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file 'gitk'.
+	The "--" is necessary to avoid confusion with the *branch* named
+	'gitk'
+
+
 Author
 ------
 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
diff --git a/Documentation/gitk.txt b/Documentation/gitk.txt
index e5ef6d6..eb126d7 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitk.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitk.txt
@@ -24,6 +24,19 @@ OPTIONS
 	Some argument not yet documented.
 
 
+Examples
+--------
+gitk v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi::
+
+	Show as the changes since version 'v2.6.12' that changed any
+	file in the include/scsi or drivers/scsi subdirectories
+
+gitk --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk::
+
+	Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file 'gitk'.
+	The "--" is necessary to avoid confusion with the *branch* named
+	'gitk'
+
 Author
 ------
 Written by Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>