Re: [PATCH] advice: Add advice.scissors to suppress "do not modify or remove this line"

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 16, 2024, 22:31 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqv84hc53e.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <046c01da903e$d6d97ac0$848c7040$@nexbridge.com>

<rsbecker@nexbridge.com> writes:

Show 17 quoted lines

>>>> This is useful advice for new users, but potentially redundant for
>>>> experienced users, who might instead appreciate seeing two more lines
>>>> of information in their editor.
>>>>
>>>> Add advice.scissors to suppress that explanation.
>>>
>>> Following up on this patch. Happy to rework if needed.
>>
>>I am not personally interested in the feature myself, and I doubt it would
> help the
>>end-user experience very much.  You'd need to find somebody else to cheer
> for the
>>topic ;-)
>
> I am having a bit of trouble understanding the use-case for
> this. Is it limited to linkgit? Under what circumstances would I
> need to use such capabilities?

When you run "git commit" from the command line without specifying any message, you'd get an editor spawned for you with something like this in the file ("--- >8 ---" and "--- 8< ---" are for illustration purposes in this message).

    --- >8 ---

    # Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting
    # with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit.
    #
    # On branch next
    # Untracked files:
    #	+runme.sh
    #	P
    #
    --- 8< ---

But when you run "git commit --cleanup=scissors" (or use the equivalent configuration variables), you'd get this instead.

    --- >8 ---

    # ------------------------ >8 ------------------------
    # Do not modify or remove the line above.
    # Everything below it will be ignored.
    #
    # On branch next
    # Untracked files:
    #	+runme.sh
    #	P
    #
    --- 8< ---

The new advice configuration is to suppress the two lines from that message template.

I agree that a bit more background information should be given in the proposed log message to help readers. It should mention when this new setting is relevant (e.g., when the "--cleanup=scissors" option is in effect), at least.

I suspect that the same configuration variable wants to also control the "helpful" comment in the "normal" case, in which case the name of the configuration variable would need to be rethought.