Re: [PATCH] clean: confirm before cleaning files and directories

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@grenoble-inp.fr>
Date: Apr 26, 2013, 16:19 UTC
Message-ID: <vpqzjwl9se7.fsf@grenoble-inp.fr>
In-Reply-To: <7vbo91z30e.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

> "git clean" without -n/f errors out, hinting the availablilty of -n
> while mentioning -f; that is the safety, isn't it?  Once the user
> decides to give -f, the user _wants_ to remove cruft, and it is a
> hinderance to require any further confirmation.

This is only half true: because "git clean" does nothing without -f, people's fingers get trained to type "git clean -f" without really thinking about it. Just like people alias rm='rm -i' and then type "rm -fr *" mechanically.

The nice thing with the confirmation dialog is that it shows the list before asking (and unlike 'rm -i', it asks only once).

But as I said in another thread, I fully agree that adding the confirmation by default even with -f is nonsense.

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