From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on dcvr.yhbt.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-ASN: AS31976 209.132.180.0/23 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.1 required=3.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_NONE shortcircuit=no autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by dcvr.yhbt.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id C113B1F4B5 for ; Fri, 22 Nov 2019 02:34:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1726408AbfKVCeV (ORCPT ); Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:34:21 -0500 Received: from pb-smtp2.pobox.com ([64.147.108.71]:56454 "EHLO pb-smtp2.pobox.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726270AbfKVCeV (ORCPT ); Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:34:21 -0500 Received: from pb-smtp2.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by pb-smtp2.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B321B3869D; Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:34:18 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from junio@pobox.com) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; s=sasl; bh=TGYDuVk91nVs7cAIsSOFbKKbiXQ=; b=JwdiKk 26OPd/XSdbm03ucYWVpDMG+zNZ/zkrZiHgbPj8pvYDaP9CEzeq7SVbS+ZtbtOYaM np4qdw+8lBDCzEcZQJALoPAK8AiTD0P1SXVW1u3lD7NhtQwc0NUVUn8hb7qFZU4M IL3Om8/YI9uPB/Ryka0T5SQmtX/UHMrrM4AnY= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; q=dns; s=sasl; b=cw7bLCsBfaf8pE4SAwIDk5eFnm7wEz7S FgxQd4Zt10sd3YKnwc087PvriPofkcNzbfppqETVDkhfluX6f21Y0F42dfrvH2MG DleY/ylJApGCh4KyUbmElTPj5X+gXWo/NushFQyrafZctko9I4YiXaezlu/dtJij rFYKNpA4h6M= Received: from pb-smtp2.nyi.icgroup.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by pb-smtp2.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAF2A3869C; Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:34:18 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from junio@pobox.com) Received: from pobox.com (unknown [34.76.80.147]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pb-smtp2.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 1E43A3869B; Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:34:18 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from junio@pobox.com) From: Junio C Hamano To: Denton Liu Cc: Emily Shaffer , git@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] grep: provide pathspecs/patterns via file or stdin References: <20191122011646.218346-1-emilyshaffer@google.com> <20191122021419.GA52557@generichostname> Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 11:34:17 +0900 In-Reply-To: <20191122021419.GA52557@generichostname> (Denton Liu's message of "Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:14:20 -0800") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.3 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Pobox-Relay-ID: 950A16C2-0CD0-11EA-A58E-D1361DBA3BAF-77302942!pb-smtp2.pobox.com Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Denton Liu writes: > The reason I ask is because (correct me if I'm wrong) a lot of other git > commands (like add, reset and checkout) don't seem to accept pathspecs > via stdin and could suffer the same problem. xargs seems like a more > general way of solving the problem of long command lines. You contributors who are potentially throwing your own topics into the cauldron, please be paying a bit more attention to other topics already cooking in the pot. I think am/pathspec-from-file wants to go in the general direction. There are things "xargs" is sufficient, and there are things that absolutely requires a single invocation of "git". "grep" is a bit of both. $ git grep -e "$pattern" -- A B C (where A, B and C are hundreds) can be split into three independent invocations of "git grep" via "xargs", essentially running $ git grep -e "$pattern" -- A $ git grep -e "$pattern" -- B $ git grep -e "$pattern" -- C independently. But $ git grep -e P1 -e P2 -e P3 -- A (where each of "-e Pn" in reality may be "-e Pn1 -e Pn2 -e Pn3..." that has hundreds of patterns) cannot be split into separate invocations and keep the same meaning. $ git grep -e P1 -- A $ git grep -e P2 -- A $ git grep -e P3 -- A may show the same lines, but (1) lines with both P1 and P2 would be shown duplicated, and (2) the order of the output would be different from a single invocation looking for all patterns at once. Needless to say, the ability to combine patterns with --all-match, --and, etc., and negate them would mean the list of patterns must be split (even when it makes sense to do so) at the right places. $ git grep -e P1 --and -e P2 cannot be split into two or more invocations, for example.