Re: [PATCH v3 3/5] name-rev: add support to exclude refs by pattern match

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 18, 2017, 21:56 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqy3y82fs8.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CA+P7+xo4-45je995LLoyh-LbGTTf3EZUVW-UV+Dd=Wg0EGRvVA@mail.gmail.com>

Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com> writes:

> Yes this makes sense. I'm still looking at whether the alternative
> implementation suggested based on the git-log style would make more
> sense or not, but if we keep this as is, the added text you gave is
> important.

I actually think it is a red-herring that "git log" honors "orders"; it does, but that is not a result of carefully considering the desired behaviour. It instead is a historical wart that came from the fact that "--branches" and friends uses for_each_glob_ref_in() that takes the top-level hierarchy paths like "refs/heads/" and the implementation of "--exclude" piggybacked into the function in a lazy way.

If exclusion were done independently (e.g. in a way similar to what you did in this series using subpath match), we wouldn't have had the "the user must give exclude patterns first that would affect the next inclusion pattern, at which point the exclude patterns are cleared and the user needs to start over", which is an end-user experience that is clunky.