threads / discuss / 57090

Adding new/create & del/delete aliases into git

Subject: Adding new/create & del/delete aliases into git

## tl;dr

3 messages between Dec 16, 2021 and Dec 17, 2021.

replies: 2people: 3as markdown or json

Jasdeep Khalsa· Dec 16, 2021, 13:29 UTC · lore

Hi there Git Community!

I've been using the following aliases for a long time:

del or delete = branch -D new or create = checkout -b

And I feel these are good candidates as an addition into the core git API as they provide an easy way for new starters to understand the creating and deleting of branches - which is arguably one of the most common git operations.

In comparison, passing in flags for this purpose for new starters to git, is both hard to remember and not easy or obvious to understand what is going on.

From my understanding, these flags were also meant as a shortcut to do a git branch && git checkout in one operation - effectively being alias flags anyway.

So I wanted to reach out to find out what appetite there may be out there to add/change these to be simpler for new starters to git :)

Thanks for considering my proposal and happy to discuss any thoughts!

Jasdeep

https://github.com/jasdeepkhalsa

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason· Dec 16, 2021, 23:43 UTC · re: Jasdeep Khalsa · lore

Re: Adding new/create & del/delete aliases into git

On Thu, Dec 16 2021, Jasdeep Khalsa wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Hi there Git Community!
>
> I've been using the following aliases for a long time:
>
> del or delete = branch -D
> new or create = checkout -b
>
> And I feel these are good candidates as an addition into the core git
> API as they provide an easy way for new starters to understand the
> creating and deleting of branches - which is arguably one of the most
> common git operations.

As a general advice if we're providing any sort of sugar / default flags either as a guide or as aliases for newcomers it's probably good to not do so with --force, i.e. your -D will shred data users might still want, better to make it a -d. You can always add -D when needed.

Show 16 quoted lines

> In comparison, passing in flags for this purpose for new starters to
> git, is both hard to remember and not easy or obvious to understand
> what is going on.
>
> From my understanding, these flags were also meant as a shortcut to do
> a git branch && git checkout in one operation - effectively being
> alias flags anyway.
>
> So I wanted to reach out to find out what appetite there may be out
> there to add/change these to be simpler for new starters to git :)
>
> Thanks for considering my proposal and happy to discuss any thoughts!
>
> Jasdeep
>
> https://github.com/jasdeepkhalsa

There was a more extensive proposal discussed on-list recently here: https://lore.kernel.org/git/20210702100506.1422429-6-felipe.contreras@gmail.com/

I think if you're interested reading that & using some of the things that came up there as a jumping-off point would be a good place to start.

Junio C Hamano· Dec 17, 2021, 00:57 UTC · re: Jasdeep Khalsa · lore

Re: Adding new/create & del/delete aliases into git

Jasdeep Khalsa <jasdeepkhalsa1@gmail.com> writes:

Show 9 quoted lines

> I've been using the following aliases for a long time:
>
> del or delete = branch -D
> new or create = checkout -b
>
> And I feel these are good candidates as an addition into the core git
> API as they provide an easy way for new starters to understand the
> creating and deleting of branches - which is arguably one of the most
> common git operations.

He wants to see his "create" to create and "delete" to delete a worktree, not a branch. And she wants to see her "create" to create and "delete" to delete a repository, not a branch.

Not everybody shares your "feel that these are common".

Aliases and synonyms are so personal and it is better to make sure that we do not define more than necessary at the public level. Otherwise we will end up squatting on more good names that people may want to use for their own aliases.