Re: [PATCH 1/4] usage: help the user help themselves

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Date: Sep 3, 2025, 21:41 UTC
Message-ID: <f7f5ba15-c475-414f-9377-0f9c630a8796@app.fastmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAPig+cQdwr-a_B++=2+q4mV8oZ7VLTYEQ9wnVP84jFYkTHFtHw@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Sep 3, 2025, at 23:21, Eric Sunshine wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

>> I've seen  "troubleshooting" questions from git users
>> who got one of those long and well-described Hints
>> like e.g. detached head and default git init branch
>> when either the msg already spelled eveything out
>> or the msg was purely informational.
>
> I didn't spell it out above, but what I had in mind was something very
> simple... not at all ong and detailed; for instance:
>
>    For interactive use, define a Git alias `git whatchanged`
>    which runs `git log --raw --no-merges`.

But that won’t work since git-whatchanged(1) is a builtin and you cannot use an alias to shadow a builtin. Now you can suggest minor variations like `whatchange`. But then people will go back to talking about their finger memory.[1][2][3]

You would need Peff’s:

https://lore.kernel.org/git/20250830022718.GB567900@coredump.intra.peff.net/

> I wonder if we should loosen the "aliases cannot override builtins" rule
> for deprecated commands. Perhaps something like the patch below.

† 1: If people are adamant about a command staying exactly as it is for
    interactive use, I don’t imagine their tolerance for a slightly
    different invocation will be much higher.
† 2: And I wonder about the audience who has been using a command which
    was deprecated for twelve years who also need to be reminded about
    aliases.
† 3: But there is one `whatchange` conversion: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAAn3O_2iHVt5TctvwLLSXm5Nw2wS8e9Xk0is1=k=-qRS=gHVMQ@mail.gmail.com/

-- 
Kristoffer Haugsbakk