Re: [RFC] Disabling status hints in COMMIT_EDITMSG

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 11, 2013, 17:24 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqob7ztgpb.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <vpq61u7akin.fsf@anie.imag.fr>

Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@grenoble-inp.fr> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
>
>> But at the same time, I feel that these redundant lines, especially
>> the latter one, would give the users a stronger cue than just saying
>> that "bar is Untracked"; "do X to include" reminds that bar will not
>> be included if nothing is done.
>
> The one which draw my attention was "(use "git commit" to conclude
> merge)" which is particularly counter-productive when you are already
> doing a "git commit".

Oh, no question about that. Nobody would object to the removal of that one; it is clearly nonsense.

I was commented on the value of keeping "hints" like this:

      # Untracked files:
      #   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

The primary value of the hint in the context of commit message buffer *NOT* being "what exactly do I need to do after I abort this commit?", but being "Ahh, this 'Untracked' section is showing me files that I may have forgotten to 'git add'". If new users do not benefit from the latter, I am perfectly fine with the removal, but I suspect it may not be the case, hence my earlier comment.

And "the user can see these hints by running another 'git status' after aborting the commit anyway" is an irrelevant counter-argument, exactly because my point is that I suspect having them in the commit template comment may help the users to *decide* if they want to continue with or abort the commit.

But as I said already, I do not have a strong preference either way.

Will queue the two patches (but I see there are already some obvious fixes suggested).

Thanks.