From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:36:38 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 2/4] cat-file: teach cat-file a '--literally' option
Message-ID: <xmqqh9s9gqw9.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAPig+cRmPv5u_OCtUPNoYOUcOoa9xn++Xw-rkD6EP6_eq0YvEQ@mail.gmail.com>

Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> writes:

> It's easy to be blinded into thinking that cat-file's new option
> should be named --literally since it was inspired by the --literally
> option of hash-object, but indeed it may not be the best choice.

Yeah, I wouldn't even say "inspired".  It was envisioned as a
counter-part debugging aid, nothing more.

Is there any other way to make cat-file looser other than accepting
an unknown type name from the future?  If so, then perhaps it may
make sense to give it a generic name that implys that we would
trigger such additional looseness in the future.  But as the
inventor of it as a debugging aid, I would say a name that spells
out the specific way this option is being loose, e.g.

>     --allow-bogus-type

or with s/bogus/unknown/, best describes what it currently does.

Thanks.