Re: [RFC] 'git cat-file' needs a better design on its option interface
- From
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
- Date
- Sep 24, 2009, 17:23 UTC
- Message-ID
- <alpine.LFD.2.01.0909241021120.3303@localhost.localdomain>
- In-Reply-To
- <3a3680030909240804w1399ed7fhd6367300544f34f@mail.gmail.com>
On Thu, 24 Sep 2009, Li Hong wrote:
> > When using 'git cat-file' recently, I find its option interface is somewhat > inconvenient or mistakenly-designed.
You likely shouldn't use 'cat-file' at all. Have you looked at 'git show'? That's the command meant for human beings.
'git cat-file' is really really low-level plumbing. Humans should generally never use it. It's one of the original git commands (it was literally in the original git commit), and it does some really low-level stuff that is good for scripting but not for any normal use.
Linus