Adding Exit status documentation to all git commands starting with git status

nadim khemir· Dec 13, 2008, 19:36 UTC · lore

I was asking on the irc channel about how to know if I need to commit. I promptely got answered but during the discussion, the few of us still awake in the middle of the night (for me at least), agreed that it would be good to have a EXIT STATUS in all the commands documentation starting with the 'status' command.

The current documentation of 'git status' does cover exit status and looks like: <original> ... shows what would be committed if the same options are given to 'git-commit'.

If there is no path that is different between the index file and the current HEAD commit (i.e., there is nothing to commit by running `git commit`), the command exits with non-zero status.

OUTPUT ------ </original>

There are different styles to add exit status, give me your input on why and why not using one or the other. I list 3 solutions and what I think about them.

... shows what would be committed if the same options are given to 'git-commit'.

EXIT STATUS ----------- The command exits with non-zero status if there is no path that is different between the index file and the current HEAD commit (i.e., there is nothing to commit by running `git commit`).

OUTPUT ------ </solution 1>

<solution 2, both zero and non zero status>

... shows what would be committed if the same options are given to 'git-commit'.

EXIT STATUS ----------- Zero status: There is a different between the index file and HEAD. Non-zero status: There is nothing to commit by running `git commit`.

OUTPUT ------ </solution 2>

<solution 3, Only zero status, non zero is easilly deducted. Clearest IMO>

... shows what would be committed if the same options are given to 'git-commit'.

EXIT STATUS ----------- Zero status: There is a different between the index and HEAD; running `git commit` would create a new commit.

OUTPUT ------ </solution 3>

A few things could be better explained:
	- The command is to be run with '-a' as option. 
	- The fact that non add'ed files are not taken into account is not
completely obvious. The first paragraph of the DESCRIPTION explains it but it  
is not the clearest explaination ever (maybe because it's not easy to explain 
and man pages are references not user manuals)

Cheers, Nadim.

Junio C Hamano· Dec 13, 2008, 20:04 UTC · re: nadim khemir · lore

Re: Adding Exit status documentation to all git commands starting with git status

nadim khemir <nadim@khemir.net> writes:

> There are different styles to add exit status, give me your input on why and 
> why not using one or the other. I list 3 solutions and what I think about 
> them.

No matter what you do, I think EXIT STATUS section should consistently come near the end of the document, immediately before SEE ALSO, which is where people who know how manual pages are written expect to find it.

Show 5 quoted lines

> EXIT STATUS
> -----------
> The command exits with non-zero status if there is no path that is 
> different between the index file and the current HEAD commit (i.e.,
> there is nothing to commit by running `git commit`).

Prose is much easier to read as long as it is brief enough, than two-item enumeration:

> EXIT STATUS
> -----------
> Zero status:      There is a different between the index file and HEAD.
> Non-zero status:  There is nothing to commit by running `git commit`.

whose use of "Zero status" makes it look doubly funny (traditionally manual pages do not seem to spell out exit status 0 as "zero", but "non-zero" is Ok).

Avoid talking about only one side of the condition if you can without being too verbose.

        The command exits with status 0 if there is something to commit by
        running `git commit` with corresponding arguments, and non-zero
        otherwise.