threads / patch / 30920

patch, 2 partsAdd a help format 'usage' to provide brief command usage

Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add a help format 'usage' to provide brief command usage

## tl;dr

2 messages between Jun 27, 2012 and Jun 27, 2012. Diffs are folded; open one to read it.

replies: 1people: 1as markdown or json

Chris Webb· Jun 27, 2012, 22:00 UTC · lore

[PATCH 1/2] Add config variable to set HTML path for git-help --web

If set in git-config, help.htmlpath overrides system_path(GIT_HTML_PATH) which was compiled in. This allows users to repoint system-wide git at their own copy of the documentation without recompiling.

When help.htmlpath is explicitly set, it is used without checking it is a local git docs directory. This means it can instead be set to a URL prefix, allowing git-help --web to work even when HTML docs aren't locally installed, using a copy accessible on the web. For example,

    [help]
      format = html
      htmlpath = http://git-scm.com/docs

will use the publicly available documentation on the git homepage.

Signed-off-by: Chris Webb <chris@arachsys.com>
---
 builtin/help.c |   20 +++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

Show changes to builtin/help.c +15 −5

diff --git a/builtin/help.c b/builtin/help.c
index 8f9cd60..a0bb2bf 100644
--- a/builtin/help.c
+++ b/builtin/help.c
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ enum help_format {
 	HELP_FORMAT_WEB
 };
 
+static char *html_path = NULL;
+
 static int show_all = 0;
 static unsigned int colopts;
 static enum help_format help_format = HELP_FORMAT_NONE;
@@ -265,6 +267,12 @@ static int git_help_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 		help_format = parse_help_format(value);
 		return 0;
 	}
+	if (!strcmp(var, "help.htmlpath")) {
+		if (!value)
+			return config_error_nonbool(var);
+		html_path = xstrdup(value);
+		return 0;
+	}
 	if (!strcmp(var, "man.viewer")) {
 		if (!value)
 			return config_error_nonbool(var);
@@ -387,12 +395,14 @@ static void show_info_page(const char *git_cmd)
 static void get_html_page_path(struct strbuf *page_path, const char *page)
 {
 	struct stat st;
-	const char *html_path = system_path(GIT_HTML_PATH);
+	if (!html_path) {
+		html_path = system_path(GIT_HTML_PATH);
 
-	/* Check that we have a git documentation directory. */
-	if (stat(mkpath("%s/git.html", html_path), &st)
-	    || !S_ISREG(st.st_mode))
-		die(_("'%s': not a documentation directory."), html_path);
+		/* Check that we have a git documentation directory. */
+		if (stat(mkpath("%s/git.html", html_path), &st)
+				|| !S_ISREG(st.st_mode))
+			die("'%s': not a documentation directory.", html_path);
+	}
 
 	strbuf_init(page_path, 0);
 	strbuf_addf(page_path, "%s/%s.html", html_path, page);

-- 
1.7.10

Chris Webb· Jun 27, 2012, 22:00 UTC · re: Chris Webb · lore

Configuring the new help.format = usage makes git foo --help exactly equivalent to git foo -h, displaying brief command-line usage info instead of full documentation in the form of a man/html page.

This is useful on stripped-down servers where man pages and viewer aren't present, or if your fingers are trained to type COMMAND --help instead of COMMAND -h to get usage info and the man page behaviour is disturbing.

Signed-off-by: Chris Webb <chris@arachsys.com>
---
 builtin/help.c |   16 ++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Show changes to builtin/help.c +14 −2

diff --git a/builtin/help.c b/builtin/help.c
index a0bb2bf..d76c2b1 100644
--- a/builtin/help.c
+++ b/builtin/help.c
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ enum help_format {
 	HELP_FORMAT_NONE,
 	HELP_FORMAT_MAN,
 	HELP_FORMAT_INFO,
-	HELP_FORMAT_WEB
+	HELP_FORMAT_WEB,
+	HELP_FORMAT_USAGE
 };
 
 static char *html_path = NULL;
@@ -46,11 +47,12 @@ static struct option builtin_help_options[] = {
 			HELP_FORMAT_WEB),
 	OPT_SET_INT('i', "info", &help_format, "show info page",
 			HELP_FORMAT_INFO),
+	OPT_SET_INT('u', "usage", &help_format, "show usage", HELP_FORMAT_USAGE),
 	OPT_END(),
 };
 
 static const char * const builtin_help_usage[] = {
-	"git help [--all] [--man|--web|--info] [command]",
+	"git help [--all] [--man|--web|--info|--usage] [command]",
 	NULL
 };
 
@@ -62,6 +64,8 @@ static enum help_format parse_help_format(const char *format)
 		return HELP_FORMAT_INFO;
 	if (!strcmp(format, "web") || !strcmp(format, "html"))
 		return HELP_FORMAT_WEB;
+	if (!strcmp(format, "usage"))
+		return HELP_FORMAT_USAGE;
 	die(_("unrecognized help format '%s'"), format);
 }
 
@@ -430,6 +434,11 @@ static void show_html_page(const char *git_cmd)
 	open_html(page_path.buf);
 }
 
+static void show_usage(const char *git_cmd)
+{
+	execl_git_cmd(git_cmd, "-h", NULL);
+}
+
 int cmd_help(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 {
 	int nongit;
@@ -481,6 +490,9 @@ int cmd_help(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	case HELP_FORMAT_WEB:
 		show_html_page(argv[0]);
 		break;
+	case HELP_FORMAT_USAGE:
+		show_usage(argv[0]);
+		break;
 	}
 
 	return 0;

-- 
1.7.10