Re: [PATCH] git-submodule.txt: fix AsciiDoc formatting error

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Denton Liu <liu.denton@gmail.com> writes:

> Remove surrounding parentheses so that the "index term" syntax is not
> triggered (and because it looks nicer without them anyway ;) ).

"Correct" always trumps "nicer", though ;-)

The $USAGE string in the script describes the available options to
this subcommand like so:

    or: $dashless [--quiet] set-branch (--default|--branch <branch>) [--] <path>

which is, "you can give either --default or --branch <branch>, but
not both".  What the original, if there were no special meaning in
double-paren, meant to say seems to (almost) match that.

> -set-branch ((-d|--default)|(-b|--branch <branch>)) [--] <path>::

I say "almost", as it gives a wrong impression that you can give
"-b" without "<branch>" X-<.

Now what does the updated text say to us?

> +set-branch (-d|--default)|(-b|--branch <branch>) [--] <path>::

I think the attempt to cram the short-form is unnecessarily
cluttering and making the result incorrect.  How about doing
something like this instead?

 Documentation/git-submodule.txt | 8 +++++---
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-submodule.txt b/Documentation/git-submodule.txt
index 0ed5c24dc1..816baa7dd0 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-submodule.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-submodule.txt
@@ -173,10 +173,12 @@ submodule with the `--init` option.
 If `--recursive` is specified, this command will recurse into the
 registered submodules, and update any nested submodules within.
 --
-set-branch ((-d|--default)|(-b|--branch <branch>)) [--] <path>::
+set-branch (--default|--branch <branch>) [--] <path>::
 	Sets the default remote tracking branch for the submodule. The
-	`--branch` option allows the remote branch to be specified. The
-	`--default` option removes the submodule.<name>.branch configuration
+	`--branch` option (or its short-form, `-b <branch>`)
+	allows the remote branch to be specified. The
+	`--default` option (or its short-form, `-d`)
+	removes the submodule.<name>.branch configuration
 	key, which causes the tracking branch to default to 'master'.
 
 summary [--cached|--files] [(-n|--summary-limit) <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]::