Re: [PATCH v3 3/3] cat-file: add "--literally" option
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 1:19 PM, Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com> wrote:
> made changes to "cat-file" to include a "--literally"
Write in imperative mood: "Teach cat-file a --literally option..."
> option which prints the type of the object without any
> complaints.
Unfortunately, this explanation is quite lacking. What "complaints"? What problem is --literally trying to solve? To answer these questions, you will probably want to say something about the sort of object which requires --literally, and how cat-file fails or behaves without it.
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> Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
> ---
> diff --git a/builtin/cat-file.c b/builtin/cat-file.c
> index df99df4..60b9ec4 100644
> --- a/builtin/cat-file.c
> +++ b/builtin/cat-file.c
> @@ -323,7 +332,7 @@ static int batch_objects(struct batch_options *opt)
> }
>
> static const char * const cat_file_usage[] = {
> - N_("git cat-file (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv) <object>"),
> + N_("git cat-file (-t|-s|-e|-p|<type>|--textconv|-t --literally) <object>"),This might read more naturally as:
git cat-file (-t [--literally] | -s | -e | -p | <type> |
--textconv) <object>
rather than repeating the -t option.
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> N_("git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects>"),
> NULL
> };
> @@ -369,6 +379,8 @@ int cmd_cat_file(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
> OPT_SET_INT('p', NULL, &opt, N_("pretty-print object's content"), 'p'),
> OPT_SET_INT(0, "textconv", &opt,
> N_("for blob objects, run textconv on object's content"), 'c'),
> + OPT_BOOL( 0, "literally", &literally,
> + N_("show the type of the given loose object, use for debugging")),Taking other help strings into account, there is no need for the long-winded "type of the given loose object" when "loose object's type" will suffice. More importantly, thought, you should try to say something about how --literally is actually useful, such as for "broken" objects or objects not of a known type.
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> { OPTION_CALLBACK, 0, "batch", &batch, "format",
> N_("show info and content of objects fed from the standard input"),
> PARSE_OPT_OPTARG, batch_option_callback },
> @@ -380,7 +392,7 @@ int cmd_cat_file(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
>
> git_config(git_cat_file_config, NULL);
>
> - if (argc != 3 && argc != 2)
> + if (argc != 3 && argc != 2 && argc != 4)Perhaps it's time to rephrase this as "if (argc < 2 || argc > 4)"?
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> usage_with_options(cat_file_usage, options);
>
> argc = parse_options(argc, argv, prefix, options, cat_file_usage, 0);
> @@ -405,5 +417,10 @@ int cmd_cat_file(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
> if (batch.enabled)
> return batch_objects(&batch);
>
> - return cat_one_file(opt, exp_type, obj_name);
> + if (literally && opt == 't')
> + return cat_one_file(opt, exp_type, obj_name, literally);
> + else if (literally)
> + usage_with_options(cat_file_usage, options);
I realize that existing cases in cat-file are already guilty of this transgression, but it is quite annoying when a program merely spits out its usage statement without actually telling you what you did wrong; and it's often difficult to figure out why it was rejected. It would be much more helpful in a case like this to state explicitly that --literally was given without -t. (But perhaps such a "friendliness" change is fodder for a separate patch.)
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> +
> + return cat_one_file(opt, exp_type, obj_name, literally);
> }
> --
> 2.3.1.167.g7f4ba4b.dirty
karthik nayak
