Re: [PATCH] git-completion: Add git help completion for aliases

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Mar 22, 2011, 08:44 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.1103220943200.1561@bonsai2>
In-Reply-To: <7v4o6vmvzs.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Hi,

On Tue, 22 Mar 2011, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 36 quoted lines

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
> 
> >> > diff --git a/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
> >> > b/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
> >> > index 893b771..f9a74d3 100755
> >> > --- a/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
> >> > +++ b/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
> >> > @@ -1506,7 +1506,7 @@ _git_help ()
> >> >  		;;
> >> >  	esac
> >> >  	__git_compute_all_commands
> >> > -	__gitcomp "$__git_all_commands
> >> > +	__gitcomp "$__git_all_commands $(__git_aliases)
> >> >  		attributes cli core-tutorial cvs-migration
> >> >  		diffcore gitk glossary hooks ignore modules
> >> >  		repository-layout tutorial tutorial-2
> >> 
> >> This patch may not be _wrong_ per-se, but it it useful in practice?
> >> 
> >> I dunno.
> >> 
> >> Don't people usually use aliases so that they do not have to type long
> >> command names that would need completion?
> >
> > Yes. And if you use a lot of aliases, or a lot of machines with evolving 
> > aliases, the easiest way to inspect the alias is "git help <alias>". Not 
> > seeing it completed is an unexpected behavior.
> 
> I've queued the patch and I already said that this is not wrong, but I
> think your argument cuts it both ways.
> 
> I have "co" aliased to "checkout", but with this change "git help 
> co<TAB>" now will interfere with my expectation that it would complete 
> to commit, config and the like, but exclude an alias that I myself 
> defined and know how to spell but forgot what its exact definition was, 
> in order to avoid cluttering the choices offered.

In a corporate environment, one would now do a market research as to what is the common expectation.

> This is a constructive tangent but if we are going to run 
> $(__git_aliases) every time we run _git_help, perhaps it would want a 
> hack similar to the way the value for $__git_all_commands is generated 
> just once?

Indeed.

Ciao, Johannes