Re: git-branch --print-current

    Miklos> On Sat, Jan 03, 2009 at 06:18:36PM -0800, Karl Chen <quarl@cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
    >> How about an option to git-symbolic-ref that gets rid of
    >> the refs/heads/ ?

    Miklos> Make an alias?

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have any problems making aliases or using git-branch for interactive output; it's not an issue of typing less.

I guess the broader point is that people use these "porcelain" commands in scripts and parse their output even when they shouldn't, and it's better to take action to prevent that. This reminds me of the issue of debugfs supposedly not being an ABI but people rely on anyway since it's stable enough - people are starting to rely on 'git branch' output just to print the current branch name. Better to create or at least publicly point out a good alternative to nip this in the bud.

I suppose "user education" in the form of a big warning in the git-branch man page would also help. How do you even tell in the man page whether a command is porcelain or not? Still, I think something like this is worth making slightly easier. Another minor argument for something like git branch --print-name is that it's annoying to check the exit code inside a pipeline.

For example: Google for how to add the name of the git branch to
the bash prompt and you'll find countless examples of people using
git-branch.  And they're all different, so people aren't just
blindly copying one guy; here is a small sample:
     
    export PS1='...`git branch 2> /dev/null | grep -e ^* | sed
    -E  s/^\\\\\*\ \(.+\)$/\(\\\\\1\)\
     
    $(git branch &>/dev/null; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "
    ($(git branch | grep '^*' |sed s/\*\ //))"; fi)
     
    `ruby -e \"print (%x{git branch 2>
    /dev/null}.grep(/^\*/).first || '').gsub(/^\* (.+)$/, '(\1)
    ')\"\`
     
    parse_git_branch() {
      git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/(\1)/'
    }
     
    `git branch 2>/dev/null|cut -f2 -d\* -s`
     
    git branch --no-color 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/(\1)/'
     
    git_branch=`git branch 2>/dev/null | grep -e '^*' | sed -E 's/^\* (.+)$/(\1) /'`
     
There were a few using git-symbolic-ref but most used git-branch.