Re: [PATCH] help: allow redirecting to help for aliased command

From: Rasmus Villemoes <rv@rasmusvillemoes.dk>
Date: Sep 28, 2018, 07:40 UTC
Message-ID: <fb221514-4749-affa-c657-0e36dd28fb13@rasmusvillemoes.dk>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqzhw4mgq3.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

On 2018-09-26 17:16, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 24 quoted lines

> Rasmus Villemoes <rv@rasmusvillemoes.dk> writes:
> 
>> +		/*
>> +		 * We use split_cmdline() to get the first word of the
>> +		 * alias, to ensure that we use the same rules as when
>> +		 * the alias is actually used. split_cmdline()
>> +		 * modifies alias in-place.
>> +		 */
>> +		count = split_cmdline(alias, &argv);
>> +		if (count < 0)
>> +			die("Bad alias.%s string: %s", cmd,
>> +			    split_cmdline_strerror(count));
>> +
>> +		if (follow_alias > 0) {
>> +			fprintf_ln(stderr,
>> +				   _("Continuing to help for %s in %0.1f seconds."),
>> +				   alias, follow_alias/10.0);
>> +			sleep_millisec(follow_alias * 100);
>> +		}
>> +		return alias;
> 
> If you have "[alias] cp = cherry-pick -n", split_cmdline discards
> "-n" and the follow-alias prompt does not even tell you that it did
> so,

That's not really true, as I deliberately did the split_cmdline after printing the "is an alias for", but before "continuing to help for", so this would precisely tell you

  cp is an alias for 'cherry-pick -n'
  continuing to help for 'cherry-pick' in 1.5 seconds

> and you get "git help cherry-pick".  This code somehow expects
> you to know to jump to the section that describes the "--no-commit"
> option.  I do not think that is a reasonable expectation.

No, in that case I would not expect git cp --help to jump to that section anymore than I would expect "git cherry-pick -n --help" to magically do that (and that would be impossible in general, if more options are bundled in the alias).

> When you have "[alias] cp = cherry-pick -n", "git cp --help" should
> not do "git help cherry-pick".  Only a single word that exactly
> matches a git command should get this treatment.

I considered that, and could certainly live with that. But it seems the discussion took a different turn in another part of the thread, so I'll continue there.

Rasmus