Re: [PATCH 2/3] submodule: implement `module_name` as a builtin helper

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Aug 31, 2015, 20:35 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqwpwbtcw2.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <1441048767-29729-3-git-send-email-sbeller@google.com>

Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:

>  usage:
> -	usage("git submodule--helper module_list\n");
> +	usage("git submodule--helper [module_list | module_name]\n");

To me, the above reads as if saying:

    The command takes one of the two subcommands at this stage,
    module_list that does not take any parameter, and module_name
    that does not take any parameter.

which is not what you intended.

I think that the help for individual options and arguments are sufficiently given in the implementation of each subcommand (e.g. module_list does its own parse_options() thing), so there is no need to duplicate them here. The only purpose of this usage serves is to tell the user that the subcommand name was not understood, and give the list of available subcommands. For that, I wonder if the usual single-liner "usage" is the best way to do so.

    $ git submodule--helper frotz
    fatal: 'frotz' is not a valid submodule--helper subcommand, which are
           module_list, module_name.

or something along that line, perhaps, may be more appropriate?