threads / bug / 27409

Bug report : git-status manual fibs about semantics of --porcelain

Subject: Bug report : git-status manual fibs about semantics of --porcelain

## tl;dr

6 messages between May 19, 2011 and May 27, 2011.

replies: 5people: 3as markdown or json

Mark Jason Dominus· May 19, 2011, 18:01 UTC · lore
The 1.7.5.1 manual says:
     --porcelain::
    	Give the output in a stable, easy-to-parse format for scripts.
    	Currently this is identical to --short output, but is guaranteed
    	not to change in the future, making it safe for scripts.

However, this is not actually true. --porcelain differs from --short in at least two ways, one of them significant.

--short is colorized when color.status = auto, while --porcelain is not.

More importantly, --short reports file paths relative to the current directory, while --porcelain reports file paths relative to the root of the repository.

All of this was the case in 1.7.0.4 also, and presumably the versions in between.

Mark Jason Dominus 	  			                 mjd@plover.com
Jeff King· May 27, 2011, 02:31 UTC · re: Mark Jason Dominus · lore

[PATCH 1/4] docs: minor grammar fixes to git-status

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
Noticed these while working on 2/4.
 Documentation/git-status.txt |    7 ++++---
 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-status.txt b/Documentation/git-status.txt
index 00b699f..7702727 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-status.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-status.txt
@@ -78,18 +78,19 @@ OUTPUT
 The output from this command is designed to be used as a commit
 template comment, and all the output lines are prefixed with '#'.
 The default, long format, is designed to be human readable,
-verbose and descriptive.  They are subject to change in any time.
+verbose and descriptive.  Its contents and format are subject to change
+at any time.
 
 The paths mentioned in the output, unlike many other git commands, are
 made relative to the current directory if you are working in a
 subdirectory (this is on purpose, to help cutting and pasting). See
 the status.relativePaths config option below.
 
-In short-format, the status of each path is shown as
+In the short-format, the status of each path is shown as
 
 	XY PATH1 -> PATH2
 
-where `PATH1` is the path in the `HEAD`, and ` -> PATH2` part is
+where `PATH1` is the path in the `HEAD`, and the ` -> PATH2` part is
 shown only when `PATH1` corresponds to a different path in the
 index/worktree (i.e. the file is renamed). The 'XY' is a two-letter
 status code.

-- 
1.7.4.5.26.g0c6a2
Jeff King· May 27, 2011, 02:31 UTC · re: Mark Jason Dominus · lore

[PATCH 2/4] docs: update status --porcelain format

The --porcelain format was originally identical to the --short format, but designed to be stable as the short format changed. Since this was written, the short format picked up a few incompatible niceties, but this description was never changed.

Let's mention the differences. While we're at it, let's add some sub-section headings to make the "output" section a little easier to navigate.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
 Documentation/git-status.txt |   27 +++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-status.txt b/Documentation/git-status.txt
index 7702727..edacf6b 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-status.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-status.txt
@@ -32,9 +32,10 @@ OPTIONS
 	Show the branch and tracking info even in short-format.
 
 --porcelain::
-	Give the output in a stable, easy-to-parse format for scripts.
-	Currently this is identical to --short output, but is guaranteed
-	not to change in the future, making it safe for scripts.
+	Give the output in an easy-to-parse format for scripts.
+	This is similar to the short output, but will remain stable
+	across git versions and regardless of user configuration. See
+	below for details.
 
 -u[<mode>]::
 --untracked-files[=<mode>]::
@@ -86,6 +87,9 @@ made relative to the current directory if you are working in a
 subdirectory (this is on purpose, to help cutting and pasting). See
 the status.relativePaths config option below.
 
+Short Format
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
 In the short-format, the status of each path is shown as
 
 	XY PATH1 -> PATH2
@@ -144,7 +148,22 @@ If -b is used the short-format status is preceded by a line
 
 ## branchname tracking info
 
-There is an alternate -z format recommended for machine parsing.  In
+Porcelain Format
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The porcelain format is similar to the short format, but is guaranteed
+not to change in a backwards-incompatible way between git versions or
+based on user configuration. This makes it ideal for parsing by scripts.
+The description of the short format above also describes the porcelain
+format, with a few exceptions:
+
+1. The user's color.status configuration is not respected; color will
+   always be off.
+
+2. The user's status.relativePaths configuration is not respected; paths
+   shown will always be relative to the repository root.
+
+There is also an alternate -z format recommended for machine parsing. In
 that format, the status field is the same, but some other things
 change.  First, the '->' is omitted from rename entries and the field
 order is reversed (e.g 'from -> to' becomes 'to from'). Second, a NUL

-- 
1.7.4.5.26.g0c6a2
Jeff King· May 27, 2011, 02:32 UTC · re: Mark Jason Dominus · lore

[PATCH 3/4] docs: make sure literal "->" isn't converted to arrow

Recent versions of asciidoc will treat "->" as a single-glyph arrow symbol, unless it is inside a literal code block. This is a problem if we are discussing literal output and want to show the ASCII characters.

Our usage falls into three categories:
  1. Inside a code block. These can be left as-is.
  2. Discussing literal output or code, but inside a
     paragraph. This patch escapes these as "\->".
  3. Using the arrow as a symbolic element, such as "use the
     Edit->Account Settings menu". In this case, the
     arrow symbol is preferable, so we leave it as-is.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
I noticed this while checking the output of my git-status.txt changes.
No idea when asciidoc started doing this (I am running 8.6.4 from debian
unstable).
 Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-status.txt    |    8 ++++----
 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt b/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt
index 88d814a..827bc98 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ Configuring database backend
 
 'git-cvsserver' uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
 its documentation if changing these variables, especially
-about `DBI->connect()`.
+about `DBI\->connect()`.
 
 gitcvs.dbname::
 	Database name. The exact meaning depends on the
diff --git a/Documentation/git-status.txt b/Documentation/git-status.txt
index edacf6b..38cb741 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-status.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-status.txt
@@ -94,12 +94,12 @@ In the short-format, the status of each path is shown as
 
 	XY PATH1 -> PATH2
 
-where `PATH1` is the path in the `HEAD`, and the ` -> PATH2` part is
+where `PATH1` is the path in the `HEAD`, and the ` \-> PATH2` part is
 shown only when `PATH1` corresponds to a different path in the
 index/worktree (i.e. the file is renamed). The 'XY' is a two-letter
 status code.
 
-The fields (including the `->`) are separated from each other by a
+The fields (including the `\->`) are separated from each other by a
 single space. If a filename contains whitespace or other nonprintable
 characters, that field will be quoted in the manner of a C string
 literal: surrounded by ASCII double quote (34) characters, and with
@@ -165,8 +165,8 @@ format, with a few exceptions:
 
 There is also an alternate -z format recommended for machine parsing. In
 that format, the status field is the same, but some other things
-change.  First, the '->' is omitted from rename entries and the field
-order is reversed (e.g 'from -> to' becomes 'to from'). Second, a NUL
+change.  First, the '\->' is omitted from rename entries and the field
+order is reversed (e.g 'from \-> to' becomes 'to from'). Second, a NUL
 (ASCII 0) follows each filename, replacing space as a field separator
 and the terminating newline (but a space still separates the status
 field from the first filename).  Third, filenames containing special

-- 
1.7.4.5.26.g0c6a2
Jeff King· May 27, 2011, 02:33 UTC · re: Mark Jason Dominus · lore

[PATCH 4/4] docs: fix some antique example output

These diff-index and diff-tree sample outputs date back to the first month of git's existence. The output format has changed slightly since then, so let's have it match the current output.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
I just noticed these while auditing all of the "->" in the docs
directory. I didn't read through the whole text to make sure there were
no other inaccuracies, though.
 Documentation/git-diff-index.txt |    4 ++--
 Documentation/git-diff-tree.txt  |    4 ++--
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt b/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt
index 6d18486..2ea22ab 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt
@@ -96,8 +96,8 @@ show that. So let's say that you have edited `kernel/sched.c`, but
 have not actually done a 'git update-index' on it yet - there is no
 "object" associated with the new state, and you get:
 
-  torvalds@ppc970:~/v2.6/linux> git diff-index HEAD
-  *100644->100664 blob    7476bb......->000000......      kernel/sched.c
+  torvalds@ppc970:~/v2.6/linux> git diff-index --abbrev HEAD
+  :100644 100664 7476bb... 000000...      kernel/sched.c
 
 i.e., it shows that the tree has changed, and that `kernel/sched.c` has is
 not up-to-date and may contain new stuff. The all-zero sha1 means that to
diff --git a/Documentation/git-diff-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-diff-tree.txt
index 4e5f127..1439486 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-diff-tree.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-diff-tree.txt
@@ -138,8 +138,8 @@ so it can be used to name subdirectories.
 
 An example of normal usage is:
 
-  torvalds@ppc970:~/git> git diff-tree 5319e4......
-  *100664->100664 blob    ac348b.......->a01513.......      git-fsck-objects.c
+  torvalds@ppc970:~/git> git diff-tree --abbrev 5319e4
+  :100664 100664 ac348b... a01513...	git-fsck-objects.c
 
 which tells you that the last commit changed just one file (it's from
 this one:

-- 
1.7.4.5.26.g0c6a2

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