From: Junio C Hamano Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 21:43:56 GMT Subject: Re: Should "git apply --check" imply verbose? Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20130820155433.217abb3e@gandalf.local.home> Steven Rostedt writes: >> > Linus told me that "git apply" was basically a replacement for patch. >> > Why would you think it would not be a good idea to assume that people >> > would not be familiar with how GNU patch works? >> >> The audience of Git these days are far more widely spread than the >> kernel circle. I am not opposed to _helping_ those who happen to >> know "patch", but I was against a description that assumes readers >> know it, i.e. making it a requirement to know "patch" to understand >> "apply". > > Patch is used by much more than just the kernel folks ;-) I've been > using patch much longer than I've been doing kernel development. Yeah, I was familiar with "patch" when I started Git, too ;-). But only folks in the kernel circle will be told by Linus the similarity between apply and patch, no? In any case... >> In other words, your enhancement to the documentation could go like: >> >> ... By default, ... With this option, you will additionally >> see such and such and such in the output (this is similar to >> what "patch --dry-run" would give you). See the EXAMPLES >> section to get a feel of how it looks like. >> >> and I would not be opposed, as long as "such and such and such" are >> written in such a way that the reader does not have to have a prior >> experience with GNU patch in order to understand it. ... I forgot to also add: And by mentioning "similar to", people who are familiar with "patch" are also helped by their pre-existing knowledge, so both kinds of people win. Thanks.