Re: "man git-checkout", man page is inconsistent between SYNOPSIS and details
- From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
- Date
- Oct 1, 2017, 03:49 UTC
- Message-ID
- <xmqqo9prv86l.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <alpine.LFD.2.21.1709301800060.7869@localhost.localdomain>
"Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> writes:
> it's simply a matter of the forms not matching between the SYNOPSIS > and the DESCRIPTION sections. am i making sense?
I think the whole thing is wrong and the root cause is because the (relatively newer) description of the "--patch" mode lazily tried to piggy-back the description of existing "check out from the index or tree-ish" mode, ending up in a confusing description.
"git checkout [<tree-ish>] -- <pathspec>..." is a way to overwrite the working tree files with what is in the object store. When you give <tree-ish>, the paths that match the <pathspec> are grabbed from the tree-ish, added to the index, and overwrites the working tree files. In this mode, you need to have at least one pathspec element on the command line, so <pathspec> is mandatory. With no pathspec, if <tree-ish> happens to be a commit-ish, then the operation is "check out the commit, so that we can prepare to make a new commit as its child".
"git checkout -p/--patch [<tree-ish>]" is quite different. It can be used without any <pathspec> to pick and choose from all changes treewide, but you can use <pathspec> to limit the changes you need to choose from.
Something like the following may be a good starting point. As I didn't spend many brain-cycles to come up with a description for the "--patch" mode, that paragraph needs a total rewrite on top, but I think the structure to separate the normal "per-path" checkout mode and "patch" mode and describe it separately should make it a lot clearer to see what is being described.
Short of such a fundamental correction,
git checkout [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] -- [<pathspec>...]
would allow you to give none of -p/--patch/<pathspec>, which is totally a different operation from what is being described in the text.
Documentation/git-checkout.txt | 17 ++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt index d6399c0af8..3d88f703e9 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt @@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ SYNOPSIS 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [--detach] <commit> 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [[-b|-B|--orphan] <new_branch>] [<start_point>] 'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>... -'git checkout' [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] +'git checkout' [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>... +'git checkout' (-p|--patch) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] DESCRIPTION ----------- @@ -78,10 +79,9 @@ be used to detach HEAD at the tip of the branch (`git checkout + Omitting <branch> detaches HEAD at the tip of the current branch. -'git checkout' [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...:: +'git checkout' [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...:: - When <paths> or `--patch` are given, 'git checkout' does *not* - switch branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree + Updates the named paths in the working tree from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are meaningless and giving either of them results in an error. The @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ Omitting <branch> detaches HEAD at the tip of the current branch. (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given paths before updating the working tree. + -'git checkout' with <paths> or `--patch` is used to restore modified or +'git checkout' with <paths> is used to restore modified or deleted paths to their original contents from the index or replace paths with the contents from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit-ish). + @@ -101,6 +101,13 @@ specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by using `--ours` or `--theirs`. With `-m`, changes made to the working tree file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result. +'git checkout' (-p|--patch) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<pathspec>...]:: + This is similar to the "check out paths to the working tree" + mode described above, but lets you use the interactive + interface show the "diff" output and choose which hunks to + use in the result. + + OPTIONS ------- -q::