# [PATCH] Documentation: Fix description of archive "--prefix"

3 messages from 2009-04-29 to 2009-04-30. Participants: Holger Weiß, Wesley J. Landaker.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/19120

## Holger Weiß, 2009-04-29 13:42

Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: Fix description of archive "--prefix"
Message-ID: <20090429134236.GU36958498@CIS.FU-Berlin.DE>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20090429134236.GU36958498%40CIS.FU-Berlin.DE

```
The description of the "--prefix" option suggested that a slash would
automatically be appended to the specified <prefix>, which is not the
case.

Signed-off-by: Holger Weiß <holger@zedat.fu-berlin.de>
---
 Documentation/git-archive.txt |    6 +++---
 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-archive.txt b/Documentation/git-archive.txt
index ad38f7f..6848e62 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-archive.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-archive.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-archive - Create an archive of files from a named tree
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git archive' --format=<fmt> [--list] [--prefix=<prefix>/] [<extra>]
+'git archive' --format=<fmt> [--list] [--prefix=<prefix>] [<extra>]
 	      [--remote=<repo> [--exec=<git-upload-archive>]] <tree-ish>
 	      [path...]
 
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ OPTIONS
 --verbose::
 	Report progress to stderr.
 
---prefix=<prefix>/::
-	Prepend <prefix>/ to each filename in the archive.
+--prefix=<prefix>::
+	Prepend <prefix> to each filename in the archive.
 
 <extra>::
 	This can be any options that the archiver backend understands.
-- 
1.6.2.4

```

## Holger Weiß, 2009-04-29 15:49

Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation: Fix description of archive "--prefix"
Message-ID: <20090429154941.GB33221014@CIS.FU-Berlin.DE>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20090429154941.GB33221014%40CIS.FU-Berlin.DE
In-Reply-To: <20090429134236.GU36958498@CIS.FU-Berlin.DE>

```
* Holger Weiß <holger@zedat.fu-berlin.de> [2009-04-29 15:42]:
> The description of the "--prefix" option suggested that a slash would
> automatically be appended to the specified <prefix>, which is not the
> case.

Nonsense, it's telling the user that appending a slash to the <prefix>
is mandatory.  Scratch my patch.

Sorry, Holger

```

## Wesley J. Landaker, 2009-04-30 02:33

Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation: Fix description of archive "--prefix"
Message-ID: <200904292033.03899.wjl@icecavern.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200904292033.03899.wjl%40icecavern.net
In-Reply-To: <20090429154941.GB33221014@CIS.FU-Berlin.DE>

```
On Wednesday 29 April 2009 09:49:41 Holger Weiß wrote:
> * Holger Weiß <holger@zedat.fu-berlin.de> [2009-04-29 15:42]:
> > The description of the "--prefix" option suggested that a slash would
> > automatically be appended to the specified <prefix>, which is not the
> > case.
>
> Nonsense, it's telling the user that appending a slash to the <prefix>
> is mandatory.  Scratch my patch.

I just tried not using a slash; it doesn't give an error or internally add 
one, instead it makes a worthless archive:

$ git archive --prefix=noslash HEAD | tar tv | head
-rw-rw-r-- root/root        51 2009-04-28 01:46 noslash.gitattributes
-rw-rw-r-- root/root      2416 2009-04-28 01:46 noslash.gitignore
-rw-rw-r-- root/root      2519 2009-04-28 01:46 noslash.mailmap
-rw-rw-r-- root/root     18787 2009-04-28 01:46 noslashCOPYING
drwxrwxr-x root/root         0 2009-04-28 01:46 noslashDocumentation/
-rw-rw-r-- root/root        17 2009-04-28 01:46 
noslashDocumentation/.gitattributes
-rw-rw-r-- root/root        91 2009-04-28 01:46 
noslashDocumentation/.gitignore
-rw-rw-r-- root/root      4868 2009-04-28 01:46 
noslashDocumentation/CodingGuidelines
-rw-rw-r-- root/root      9028 2009-04-28 01:46 noslashDocumentation/Makefile
-rw-rw-r-- root/root      1255 2009-04-28 01:46 
noslashDocumentation/RelNotes-1.5.0.1.txt

Should this be fixed by automatically adding a slash if there wasn't one given? 
I can't image anyone would want an archive made of mangled filenames like this, 
so if we don't want that behavior, it seems like it should at least give an 
error.

```