Re: [PATCH 1/1] ls-remote: don't use '-h' for options
- From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
- Date
- Feb 27, 2020, 16:10 UTC
- Message-ID
- <xmqqa754gger.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <03985e4099e82f04709d5ea9ca2a56a6@pascalroeleven.nl>
Pascal Roeleven <dev@pascalroeleven.nl> writes:
> In my case I looked into the documentation, used '-h' exactly as
> described ('<refs>' is optional) and it didn't produce the output as
> described. If you ask me, either the code or the documentation should
> be changed.Yeah, I tend to agree that documentation could be better.
You may think that nobody would ask your opinion, but proposing a change by sending a patch often makes you heard around here ;-)
Thanks.
-- >8 -- Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: clarify that `-h` alone stands for `help`
We seem to be getting new users who get confused every 20 months or so with this "-h consistently wants to give help, but the commands to which `-h` may feel like a good short-form option want it to mean something else." compromise.
Let's make sure that the readers know that `git cmd -h` (with no other arguments) is a way to get usage text, even for commands like ls-remote and grep.
Also extend the description that is already in gitcli.txt, as it is clear that users still get confused with the current text.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> --- Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt | 4 +++- Documentation/gitcli.txt | 5 +++++ 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt b/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt index a2ea1fd687..0a5c8b7d49 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt @@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ OPTIONS Limit to only refs/heads and refs/tags, respectively. These options are _not_ mutually exclusive; when given both, references stored in refs/heads and refs/tags are - displayed. + displayed. Note that `git ls-remote -h` used without + anything else on the command line gives help, consistent + with other git subcommands. --refs:: Do not show peeled tags or pseudorefs like `HEAD` in the output. diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt index 373cfa2264..92e4ba6a2f 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt @@ -126,6 +126,11 @@ usage: git describe [<options>] <commit-ish>* --long always use long format --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s --------------------------------------------- ++ +Note that some subcommand (e.g. `git grep`) may behave differently +when there are things on the command line other than `-h`, but `git +subcmd -h` without anything else on the command line is meant to +consistently give the usage. --help-all:: Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that