Re: [PATCH] introduce git root

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@grenoble-inp.fr>
Date: Nov 30, 2014, 11:58 UTC
Message-ID: <vpqoaro99xd.fsf@anie.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <CAJFMrCEciWXhBb36MVeFPi7Y7D=9zQ2xGPpiyUz9y4_hOh_taw@mail.gmail.com>

Arjun Sreedharan <arjun024@gmail.com> writes:

Show 16 quoted lines

> On 30 November 2014 at 04:38, Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org> wrote:
>> From: "Arjun Sreedharan" <arjun024@gmail.com>
>>>
>>> This introduces `git root` which outputs the root directory
>>> (the directory that contains .git).
>>> The same can be accomplished by `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`.
>>> `git root` is much more intuitive and easy to remember.
>>> All it does is set the arguments for rev-parse
>>
>>
>> This may be better as an alias.
>> I've added it to my aliases list.
>>
>
> I know that. I am suggesting this to be a built-in command, without having the
> need to add as an alias.

Indeed, suggesting people to add an alias does not solve the discoverability issue. git rev-parse --show-toplevel is not just long, it's just not the place where people would look for (it's neither about revision nor about parsing, so clearly, "rev-parse" is not a good place to host the feature in the UI).

If we were to rewrite Git from scratch, then I would be all for having a "git root" command. Given that we already have rev-parse --show-toplevel, and that we'll have to keep it anyway for backward compatibility, I'm a bit more hesitant ("Git is hard to use because it doesn't have enough commands" is not a complain I hear so often ;-) ), but still mostly positive.

If we go this way, then the documentation must be updated too. I think the doc should still recommend "git rev-parse --show-toplevel" for scripting until Git versions implementing "git root" are widely deployed enough.

Also, there are other options of git rev-parse which should be dealt with: at least --show-cdup (could be eg. "git root --relative") and --show-prefix, but probably also others from the "Options for Files" in the man of git-rev-parse.

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/