Re: default aliases (ci, di, st, co)

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@imag.fr>
Date: Jul 9, 2009, 09:12 UTC
Message-ID: <vpqy6qycj9l.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <h34bms$8to$1@ger.gmane.org>

Graeme Geldenhuys <graemeg@gmail.com> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Ondrej Certik wrote:
>> [alias]
>>     ci = commit
>>     di = diff --color-words
>>     st = status
>>     co = checkout
>>
>
> I also gave from SVN and I must admit, I did create co, st, ci
> aliases, but basically never used them, so removed them since. Git is
> not SVN, so why treat it as such.

co is indeed particularly nasty. Yes, it's common for cvs/svn old-timers, but "co" is a prefix of "COmmit", and means "CheckOut". That's really misleading.

And the problem with aliases is that although they are good for personnal use, they become bad when people use them publicly : either in mail messages or in scripts. Ask about something that requires "git commit" on the Git mailing list, everybody will be talking about "git commit", not one about "git ci", the other about "git checkin" and the last one about "git commit". That's far less misleading (yes, the example is oversimplified, but if I advise someone to use "git diff --color-words", he/she understands what I'm talking about immediately, while if I advise "git di", it requires more time).

One thing I'd like to see is a wizard that creates a ~/.gitconfig with this section commented out when it does not exist, like

[alias] # Aliases, uncomment the lines to use them. # ci = commit # di = diff --color-words

To reduce the effort of people willing to use aliases, without making them totally official.

-- 
Matthieu