threads / discuss / 31020
Subject: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
Hi, Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general anyway.
-- Regards, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) FSF member#5124
Stefan NäweRe: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes:
> > Hi, > Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even > further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type > 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier > but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you > have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general > anyway.
Or even '~1', '~3'.
Where's the '+1' button...?
Stefan
Junio C HamanoRe: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
Stefan Näwe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com> writes:
> Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes: >> >> Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even >> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type >> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier >> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you >> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general >> anyway. > > Or even '~1', '~3'.
"^" has a problem when used with other things (does "log ^^2 origin" mean "log HEAD^2..origin"? Or "log HEAD^^2 origin"), so I do not think it would never fly as an abbreviated syntax.
While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still need to be a bit more careful when analysing the benefit of such an abbreviation. To shells used by many people, these mean tilde expansion ~<N> to refer to elements on the dirstack and you need to quote, perhaps like \~3.
Junio C HamanoRe: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
> Stefan Näwe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com> writes: > >> Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes: >>> >>> Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even >>> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type >>> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier >>> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you >>> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general >>> anyway. >> >> Or even '~1', '~3'. > > "^" has a problem when used with other things (does "log ^^2 > origin" mean "log HEAD^2..origin"? Or "log HEAD^^2 origin"), so I > do not think it would never fly as an abbreviated syntax. > > While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still
s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-)
> need to be a bit more careful when analysing the benefit of such an > abbreviation. To shells used by many people, these mean tilde > expansion ~<N> to refer to elements on the dirstack and you need to > quote, perhaps like \~3.
Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 11:34 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes: > >> Stefan Näwe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com> writes: >> >>> Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes: >>>> >>>> Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even >>>> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type >>>> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier >>>> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you >>>> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general >>>> anyway. >>> >>> Or even '~1', '~3'. >> >> "^" has a problem when used with other things (does "log ^^2 >> origin" mean "log HEAD^2..origin"? Or "log HEAD^^2 origin"), so I >> do not think it would never fly as an abbreviated syntax.
What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?
>> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still > > s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-)
Why?
>> need to be a bit more careful when analysing the benefit of such an >> abbreviation. To shells used by many people, these mean tilde >> expansion ~<N> to refer to elements on the dirstack and you need to >> quote, perhaps like \~3.
That would kinda beat the purpose I think, would be nice to just type 1 key rather than 3 to refer to HEAD (2 keys would still be good enough IMHO).
-- Regards, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) FSF member#5124
Junio C HamanoRe: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
"Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)" <zeeshanak@gnome.org> writes:
> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested? > >>> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still >> >> s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-) > > Why?
That "^^" is the most important reason why your "^ is the same as HEAD^" is flawed, and goes against my taste.
Think what "log ^^ origin" would mean. Is it "log ^HEAD^ origin"? Is it "log HEAD^^ origin"? They mean totally different things.
Compared to that, at least ~<n> does not have such ambiguity within the context of Git (having to quote is an ambiguity within the context of using Git with shells that support dirstacks in their tilde expansion).
Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)" <zeeshanak@gnome.org> writes: > >> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested? >> >>>> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still >>> >>> s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-) >> >> Why? > > That "^^" is the most important reason why your "^ is the same as > HEAD^" is flawed, and goes against my taste. > > Think what "log ^^ origin" would mean. Is it "log ^HEAD^ origin"? > Is it "log HEAD^^ origin"? They mean totally different things.
Sorry for my ignorance here but what does ^ *before* HEAD even mean? I tried playing with different combinations of ^ and HEAD here (e.g ^HEAD^, ^HEAD^^, ^HEAD^^^) with both log and show commands but git just silently returns on them. Is this ^ before HEAD actually used cause I have never seen/heard of that before. Google isn't able to help either.
> Compared to that, at least ~<n> does not have such ambiguity within > the context of Git (having to quote is an ambiguity within the > context of using Git with shells that support dirstacks in their > tilde expansion).
Don't know whats dirstacks support either but that I guess just means that bash (the shell I have always used) doesn't do that.
-- Regards, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) FSF member#5124
Jeff KingRe: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 01:24:18AM +0300, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) wrote:
> > Think what "log ^^ origin" would mean. Is it "log ^HEAD^ origin"? > > Is it "log HEAD^^ origin"? They mean totally different things. > > Sorry for my ignorance here but what does ^ *before* HEAD even mean? I
It means "not" (before "HEAD" or any other commit specifier). See "Specifying Ranges" in "git help revisions".
> > Compared to that, at least ~<n> does not have such ambiguity within > > the context of Git (having to quote is an ambiguity within the > > context of using Git with shells that support dirstacks in their > > tilde expansion). > > Don't know whats dirstacks support either but that I guess just means > that bash (the shell I have always used) doesn't do that.
Bash does support them, but you may not use them personally. Here are some examples of how a more bare "~" can go wrong:
$ set -x [this instructs the shell to show us what it is executing]
$ git log ~ + git log /home/peff [oops, the shell expanded our home directory and passed it to git]
$ git log ~1 + git log '~1' [this one works ok, but...]
$ pushd /tmp $ pushd $HOME $ git log ~1 + git log /tmp [oops, pushd users cannot use ~<n> without quoting]
-Peff
Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
Am 15.07.2012 00:24, schrieb Zeeshan Ali (Khattak):
> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Junio C Hamano<gitster@pobox.com> wrote: >> "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)"<zeeshanak@gnome.org> writes: >> >>> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?
If you want a shortcut, you might try this:
echo "ref: HEAD" > .git/h
Then you can use 'h' instead of 'HEAD'.
Tested it and it seemed to work. If not someone on this list surely will correct me.
Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'
On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 8:45 PM, Holger Hellmuth <hellmuth@ira.uka.de> wrote:
> Am 15.07.2012 00:24, schrieb Zeeshan Ali (Khattak): > >> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Junio C Hamano<gitster@pobox.com> >> wrote: >>> >>> "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)"<zeeshanak@gnome.org> writes: >>> >>>> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested? > > > If you want a shortcut, you might try this: > > echo "ref: HEAD" > .git/h > > Then you can use 'h' instead of 'HEAD'. > > Tested it and it seemed to work. If not someone on this list surely will > correct me.
Thanks, was hoping to have something thats supported out of the box in future git but I guess I can settle for a local hack too. :)
-- Regards, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) FSF member#5124