From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
To: Git List <git@vger.kernel.org>
Cc: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] diffcore-pickaxe doc: document -S and -G properly
Date: Fri, 24 May 2013 16:03:55 +0530 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1369391635-13056-3-git-send-email-artagnon@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1369391635-13056-1-git-send-email-artagnon@gmail.com>
The documentation of -S and -G is very sketchy. Completely rewrite the
sections in Documentation/diff-options.txt and
Documentation/gitdiffcore.txt.
References:
52e9578 ([PATCH] Introducing software archaeologist's tool "pickaxe".)
f506b8e (git log/diff: add -G<regexp> that greps in the patch text)
Inputs-from: Phil Hord <phil.hord@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
---
Documentation/diff-options.txt | 38 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
Documentation/gitdiffcore.txt | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
2 files changed, 55 insertions(+), 26 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/diff-options.txt b/Documentation/diff-options.txt
index 104579d..2835eef 100644
--- a/Documentation/diff-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/diff-options.txt
@@ -383,14 +383,36 @@ ifndef::git-format-patch[]
that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
-S<string>::
- Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
- <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
- appearing in diff output; see the 'pickaxe' entry in
- linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more details.
+ Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
+ the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
+ Intended for the scripter's use.
++
+It is especially useful when you're looking for an exact block of code
+(like a struct), and want to know the history of that block since it
+first came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the
+interesting block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until
+you get the very first version of the block.
-G<regex>::
- Look for differences whose added or removed line matches
- the given <regex>.
+ Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
+ lines that match <regex>.
++
+To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
+`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
+file:
++
+----
++ return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
+...
+- hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
+----
++
+While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
+-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
+occurrences of that string did not change).
++
+See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
+information.
--pickaxe-all::
When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
@@ -398,8 +420,8 @@ ifndef::git-format-patch[]
in <string>.
--pickaxe-regex::
- Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
- regex to match.
+ Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
+ expression to match.
endif::git-format-patch[]
-O<orderfile>::
diff --git a/Documentation/gitdiffcore.txt b/Documentation/gitdiffcore.txt
index 568d757..ef4c04a 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitdiffcore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitdiffcore.txt
@@ -222,26 +222,33 @@ version prefixed with '+'.
diffcore-pickaxe: For Detecting Addition/Deletion of Specified String
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-This transformation is used to find filepairs that represent
-changes that touch a specified string, and is controlled by the
--S option and the `--pickaxe-all` option to the 'git diff-*'
-commands.
-
-When diffcore-pickaxe is in use, it checks if there are
-filepairs whose "result" side and whose "origin" side have
-different number of specified string. Such a filepair represents
-"the string appeared in this changeset". It also checks for the
-opposite case that loses the specified string.
-
-When `--pickaxe-all` is not in effect, diffcore-pickaxe leaves
-only such filepairs that touch the specified string in its
-output. When `--pickaxe-all` is used, diffcore-pickaxe leaves all
-filepairs intact if there is such a filepair, or makes the
-output empty otherwise. The latter behaviour is designed to
-make reviewing of the changes in the context of the whole
+There are two kinds of pickaxe: the S kind (corresponding to 'git log
+-S') and the G kind (mnemonic: grep; corresponding to 'git log -G').
+
+"-S<block of text>" detects filepairs whose preimage and postimage
+have different number of occurrences of the specified block of text.
+By definition, it will not detect in-file moves. Also, when a
+changeset moves a file wholesale without affecting the interesting
+string, rename detection kicks in as usual, and `-S` omits the
+filepair (since the number of occurrences of that string didn't change
+in that rename-detected filepair). The implementation essentially
+runs a count, and is significantly cheaper than the G kind. When used
+with `--pickaxe-regex`, treat the <block of text> as an extended POSIX
+regular expression to match, instead of a literal string.
+
+"-G<regular expression>" detects filepairs whose textual diff has an
+added or a deleted line that matches the given regular expression.
+This means that it can detect in-file (or what rename-detection
+considers the same file) moves. The implementation runs diff twice
+and greps, and this can be quite expensive.
+
+When `-S` or `-G` are used without `--pickaxe-all`, only filepairs
+that match their respective criterion are kept in the output. When
+`--pickaxe-all` is used, if even one filepair matches their respective
+criterion in a changeset, the entire changeset is kept. This behavior
+is designed to make reviewing changes in the context of the whole
changeset easier.
-
diffcore-order: For Sorting the Output Based on Filenames
---------------------------------------------------------
--
1.8.3.rc3.17.gd95ec6c.dirty
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-05-24 10:32 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 16+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-05-24 10:33 [PATCH v3 0/2] Improve diffcore-pickaxe documentation Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-24 10:33 ` [PATCH 1/2] diffcore-pickaxe: make error messages more consistent Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-24 10:33 ` Ramkumar Ramachandra [this message]
2013-05-24 17:31 ` [PATCH 2/2] diffcore-pickaxe doc: document -S and -G properly Junio C Hamano
2013-05-31 12:04 ` Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-06-02 19:56 ` Junio C Hamano
2013-06-02 20:28 ` Ramkumar Ramachandra
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2013-05-31 12:12 [PATCH v4 0/2] Improve diffcore-pickaxe documentation Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-31 12:12 ` [PATCH 2/2] diffcore-pickaxe doc: document -S and -G properly Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-06-03 17:54 ` Junio C Hamano
2013-05-17 12:23 [PATCH v2 0/2] Improve diffcore-pickaxe documentation Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-17 12:23 ` [PATCH 2/2] diffcore-pickaxe doc: document -S and -G properly Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-18 1:24 ` Junio C Hamano
2013-05-19 7:33 ` Junio C Hamano
2013-05-24 9:37 ` Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-24 14:58 ` Phil Hord
2013-05-24 16:01 ` Ramkumar Ramachandra
2013-05-24 16:54 ` Junio C Hamano
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