Re: [PATCH 0/5] New config option for git-grep to include untracked files

From: Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org>
Date: Mar 19, 2024, 05:09 UTC
Message-ID: <c68a6d94bb02e5d9aa2f81bee022baa8@manjaro.org>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqwmpzt6jk.fsf@gitster.g>

Hello Junio,

On 2024-03-19 01:21, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> writes:
> 
>> This patch series introduces new config option grep.includeUntracked,
>> which makes the untracked files also searched by default when 
>> git-grep(1)
>> is invoked, in addition to searching the tracked files.
> 
> Hmph.  I am moderately negative on any configuration that screws
> with the default haystack from which needle is sought for.
> 
> I may often do "git grep --cached" but that does not mean I would
> welcome an configuration option to make "git grep" search in the
> index even when the request by the user does not have "--cached".
> 
> Inclusion of untracked sources in a sense is even worse, especially
> when an unsuspecting "git grep" user (or a script) fully expects
> that any paths found in the output are to be found in "git ls-files
> -s" output but when you stray into a repository with the
> configuration set, that expectation suddelnly gets broken.

Hmm... Those are valid concerns. For example, I'd also be against another configuration option that would make it possible to enable --cached by default, for example, because it could easily mess the things up really bad.

However, I think that the usability of this new configuration option outweighs the possible issues it could cause to some users. For example, I quite often find myself in need to specify --untracked while running git-grep(1), to see what's found in the code changes I haven't staged yet, so I find this new configuration very useful.

Of course, I already have a few aliases defined for grep operations, but defining another one for "grep --untracked" simply doesn't fit into my alias scheme. Obviously, that's why I implemented this new option, :) hoping that it would be usable to other people, too.

I'm not sure how many users could be affected by the possible negative effects of this configuration option, by using a specific mix of git operations, but I think it would be quite useful.