[RFC/PATCH 00/17] unexpected backslashes in man pages

[RFC/PATCH 00/17] unexpected backslashes in man pages

[Jonathan Nieder]

(cc: interested parties and documentation experts)

Hi,

This series is longer than I would like, and I am not happy to
impose the review burden.  So if something does not look obviously
correct at a glance, please let me know and I'll try to simplify it.

The topic: as Frédéric Brière noticed in
<http://bugs.debian.org/540001>, various man pages have collected
backslashes where they don't belong.

Maybe we should forbid backslashes outside of

--------
literal
--------

sections.  Well, I did not go that far.

Still, maybe the patches can be useful.

Jonathan Nieder (17):
  Documentation: tweak description of log.date
  Documentation: quoting trouble in "git rm" discussion
  Documentation: unbreak regex in show-ref --exclude-existing
    description
  Documentation: clarify quoting in "git add" example
  Documentation: add missing quotes to "git grep" examples
  Documentation: clarify quoting in "git rm" example
  Documentation: clarify quoting in gitignore docs
  Documentation: remove backslashes in manpage synopses
  Documentation/technical: avoid stray backslash in parse-options API
    docs
  Documentation: remove stray backslash from "git bundle" manual
  Documentation: remove backslash before ~ in fast-import manual
  Documentation: remove stray backslashes in rev-parse manual
  Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion
  Documentation: avoid stray backslashes in core tutorial
  Documentation: avoid stray backslash in user manual
  Documentation: do not convert ... operator to ellipses
  Documentation: remove stray backslashes from "Fighting regressions"
    article

 Documentation/asciidoc.conf                   |    2 ++
 Documentation/config.txt                      |    9 +++++----
 Documentation/git-add.txt                     |    4 ++--
 Documentation/git-bisect-lk2009.txt           |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-bundle.txt                  |    8 ++++----
 Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt          |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-checkout.txt                |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt             |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-fast-export.txt             |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt            |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-grep.txt                    |    4 ++--
 Documentation/git-ls-files.txt                |    6 +++---
 Documentation/git-merge-index.txt             |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-push.txt                    |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-rebase.txt                  |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-relink.txt                  |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt               |    9 +++++----
 Documentation/git-rm.txt                      |    9 +++++----
 Documentation/git-show-branch.txt             |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-show-ref.txt                |    4 ++--
 Documentation/git-update-index.txt            |    4 ++--
 Documentation/gitcore-tutorial.txt            |   18 +++++++++---------
 Documentation/gitignore.txt                   |    4 ++--
 Documentation/rev-list-options.txt            |    2 +-
 Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt |    8 ++++----
 Documentation/user-manual.txt                 |    4 ++--
 26 files changed, 61 insertions(+), 56 deletions(-)

-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 01/17] Documentation: tweak description of log.date

[Jonathan Nieder]

The markup "'git log'\'s" produces a stray backslash in the
produced man page.  Removing the backslash fixes it.

While at it, tweak the surrounding description for readability.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/config.txt |    9 +++++----
 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index f81fb91..72cb2c9 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1289,10 +1289,11 @@ interactive.singlekey::
 	ignored if portable keystroke input is not available.
 
 log.date::
-	Set default date-time mode for the log command. Setting log.date
-	value is similar to using 'git log'\'s --date option. The value is one of the
-	following alternatives: {relative,local,default,iso,rfc,short}.
-	See linkgit:git-log[1].
+	Set the default date-time mode for the 'log' command.
+	Setting a value for log.date is similar to using 'git log''s
+	`\--date` option.  Possible values are `relative`, `local`,
+	`default`, `iso`, `rfc`, and `short`; see linkgit:git-log[1]
+	for details.
 
 log.decorate::
 	Print out the ref names of any commits that are shown by the log
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 02/17] Documentation: quoting trouble in "git rm" discussion

[Jonathan Nieder]

The current output (with Asciidoc 8.5.2) seems a bit broken:

	given two directories ‘d` and d2, there is a difference
	between using git rm 'd*’ and ‘git rm 'd/\*\’`, as the
	former will also remove all of directory d2.

In other words, the markup parses as

	given two directories << d` and _d2_, there is a difference
	between using _git rm 'd* >>_ and << git rm 'd/\*\ >> `.

I suspect there is an asciidoc bug involved (why is ' a candidate
closing-quote mark when it is preceded by a backslash?) but with
all the meanings of ` and ' involved I do not want to track it
down.  Better to use unambiguous {asterisk} and {apostrophe}
entities.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/asciidoc.conf |    1 +
 Documentation/git-rm.txt    |    3 ++-
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/asciidoc.conf b/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
index 87a90f2..6be8ba3 100644
--- a/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
+++ b/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ caret=&#94;
 startsb=&#91;
 endsb=&#93;
 tilde=&#126;
+apostrophe=&#39;
 backtick=&#96;
 
 ifdef::backend-docbook[]
diff --git a/Documentation/git-rm.txt b/Documentation/git-rm.txt
index c21d19e..d146751 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rm.txt
@@ -78,7 +78,8 @@ a file that you have not told git about does not remove that file.
 
 File globbing matches across directory boundaries.  Thus, given
 two directories `d` and `d2`, there is a difference between
-using `git rm \'d\*\'` and `git rm \'d/\*\'`, as the former will
+using `git rm {apostrophe}d{asterisk}{apostrophe}` and
+`git rm {apostrophe}d/{asterisk}{apostrophe}`, as the former will
 also remove all of directory `d2`.
 
 REMOVING FILES THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED FROM THE FILESYSTEM
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 03/17] Documentation: unbreak regex in show-ref manual

[Jonathan Nieder]

I am not sure why, but the regular expression "(?:\^\{\})" gets
rendered by asciidoc as "(?:\{})".  The intent seems to be a regex
matching the literal string "^{}", so this rewrites the markup to
produce "(?:\^{})" as output.

Cc: Julian Phillips <julian@quantumfyre.co.uk>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/asciidoc.conf    |    1 +
 Documentation/git-show-ref.txt |    4 ++--
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/asciidoc.conf b/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
index 6be8ba3..b5f0f29 100644
--- a/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
+++ b/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ plus=&#43;
 caret=&#94;
 startsb=&#91;
 endsb=&#93;
+backslash=&#92;
 tilde=&#126;
 apostrophe=&#39;
 backtick=&#96;
diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt
index 75780d7..4696af7 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt
@@ -73,8 +73,8 @@ OPTIONS
 --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]::
 
 	Make 'git show-ref' act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of the
-	form "^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^\{\})?$" and performs the
-	following actions on each:
+	form "^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:{backslash}{caret}\{\})?$"
+	and performs the following actions on each:
 	(1) strip "^{}" at the end of line if any;
 	(2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match refname;
 	(3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 04/17] Documentation: clarify quoting in "git add" example

[Jonathan Nieder]

The intended text looks like this:

	· Adds content from all *.txt files under Documentation
	  directory and its subdirectories:

		$ git add Documentation/\*.txt

	  Note that the asterisk * is quoted from the shell in this
	  example; this lets the command include the files from
	  subdirectories of Documentation/ directory.

The current asciidoc 8.5.2 output has a backslash before _every_
asterisk, which is more confusing than it needs to be.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Cc: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-add.txt |    4 ++--
 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-add.txt b/Documentation/git-add.txt
index e22a62f..e213a2e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-add.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-add.txt
@@ -157,14 +157,14 @@ those in info/exclude.  See linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5].
 EXAMPLES
 --------
 
-* Adds content from all `\*.txt` files under `Documentation` directory
+* Adds content from all `*.txt` files under `Documentation` directory
 and its subdirectories:
 +
 ------------
 $ git add Documentation/\*.txt
 ------------
 +
-Note that the asterisk `\*` is quoted from the shell in this
+Note that the asterisk `*` is quoted from the shell in this
 example; this lets the command include the files from
 subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
 
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 05/17] Documentation: add missing quotes to "git grep" examples

[Jonathan Nieder]

Without an indication to the contrary, Asciidoc puts 'quoted
text' in italics, making the output look like this:

	git grep time_t -- *.[ch]
	    Looks for time_t in all tracked .c and .h
	    files in the working directory and its subdirectories.

	git grep -e '#define\' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)
	    Looks for a line that has #define and either MAX_PATH or
	    PATH_MAX.

In the first example, the *.[ch] argument needs to be protected from
the shell, or else it will only match files in the current directory.
The second example has a stray backslash.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Cc: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com>
Cc: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-grep.txt |    4 ++--
 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-grep.txt b/Documentation/git-grep.txt
index 5474dd7..dab0a78 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-grep.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-grep.txt
@@ -191,11 +191,11 @@ OPTIONS
 Examples
 --------
 
-git grep 'time_t' \-- '*.[ch]'::
+git grep {apostrophe}time_t{apostrophe} \-- {apostrophe}*.[ch]{apostrophe}::
 	Looks for `time_t` in all tracked .c and .h files in the working
 	directory and its subdirectories.
 
-git grep -e \'#define\' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)::
+git grep -e {apostrophe}#define{apostrophe} --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)::
 	Looks for a line that has `#define` and either `MAX_PATH` or
 	`PATH_MAX`.
 
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 06/17] Documentation: clarify quoting in "git rm" example

[Jonathan Nieder]

Intended output:

	git rm Documentation/\*.txt
		Removes all *.txt files from the index that are under
		the Documentation directory and any of its
		subdirectories.

		Note that the asterisk * is quoted from the shell in
		this example; this lets git, and not the shell, expand
		the pathnames of files and subdirectories under the
		Documentation/ directory.

Without this change, there are too many backslashes output.
Tested with asciidoc 8.5.2.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Cc: Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-rm.txt |    6 +++---
 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-rm.txt b/Documentation/git-rm.txt
index d146751..71e3d9f 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rm.txt
@@ -136,11 +136,11 @@ git diff --name-only --diff-filter=D -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached
 
 EXAMPLES
 --------
-git rm Documentation/\\*.txt::
-	Removes all `\*.txt` files from the index that are under the
+git rm Documentation/\*.txt::
+	Removes all `*.txt` files from the index that are under the
 	`Documentation` directory and any of its subdirectories.
 +
-Note that the asterisk `\*` is quoted from the shell in this
+Note that the asterisk `*` is quoted from the shell in this
 example; this lets git, and not the shell, expand the pathnames
 of files and subdirectories under the `Documentation/` directory.
 
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 07/17] Documentation: clarify quoting in gitignore docs

[Jonathan Nieder]

An asterisk in "Documentation/*.txt" quoted with \ to avoid bold text
is being output as \* because asciidoc does not consider it a
candidate for escaping (there is no matching * to pair it with).

So the manual looks like it is saying that one should write
"Documentation/\*.txt" in the .gitignore file.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/gitignore.txt |    4 ++--
 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index e10fa88..7dc2e8b 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -90,12 +90,12 @@ Patterns have the following format:
  - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
    for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
    wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
-   For example, "Documentation/\*.html" matches
+   For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
    "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
    or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".
 
  - A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname.
-   For example, "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
+   For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
    "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
 
 An example:
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 08/17] Documentation: remove backslashes in manpage synopses

[Jonathan Nieder]

For some reason, various manual pages have an asterisk escaped
with \ in the synopsis.  Since there is no other asterisk to pair it
with, Asciidoc does not consider this asterisk escapable, so it passes
the backslash through.

Each page either uses [verse] or has only one asterisk, so it
is safe to drop the backslashes (checked with asciidoc 8.5.2).

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt    |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt   |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-ls-files.txt       |    6 +++---
 Documentation/git-merge-index.txt    |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-relink.txt         |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-update-index.txt   |    4 ++--
 7 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt b/Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt
index d6aa6e1..62f9ab2 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 		   [--stage=<number>|all]
 		   [--temp]
 		   [-z] [--stdin]
-		   [--] [<file>]\*
+		   [--] [<file>]*
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
index 6188854..349366e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-commit-tree - Create a new commit object
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git commit-tree' <tree> [-p <parent commit>]\* < changelog
+'git commit-tree' <tree> [-p <parent commit>]* < changelog
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt
index 390d85c..d66fd9d 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git for-each-ref' [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
-		   [--sort=<key>]\* [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
+		   [--sort=<key>]* [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt b/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt
index bd919f2..45a7f56 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt
@@ -10,14 +10,14 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git ls-files' [-z] [-t] [-v]
-		(--[cached|deleted|others|ignored|stage|unmerged|killed|modified])\*
-		(-[c|d|o|i|s|u|k|m])\*
+		(--[cached|deleted|others|ignored|stage|unmerged|killed|modified])*
+		(-[c|d|o|i|s|u|k|m])*
 		[-x <pattern>|--exclude=<pattern>]
 		[-X <file>|--exclude-from=<file>]
 		[--exclude-per-directory=<file>]
 		[--exclude-standard]
 		[--error-unmatch] [--with-tree=<tree-ish>]
-		[--full-name] [--abbrev] [--] [<file>]\*
+		[--full-name] [--abbrev] [--] [<file>]*
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-merge-index.txt b/Documentation/git-merge-index.txt
index 4d266de..921b38f 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-merge-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-merge-index.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-merge-index - Run a merge for files needing merging
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git merge-index' [-o] [-q] <merge-program> (-a | [--] <file>\*)
+'git merge-index' [-o] [-q] <merge-program> (-a | [--] <file>*)
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-relink.txt b/Documentation/git-relink.txt
index 25ff8f9..8a5842b 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-relink.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-relink.txt
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ git-relink - Hardlink common objects in local repositories
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git relink' [--safe] <dir> [<dir>]\* <master_dir>
+'git relink' [--safe] <dir> [<dir>]* <master_dir>
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-update-index.txt b/Documentation/git-update-index.txt
index 765d4b3..74d1d49 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-update-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-update-index.txt
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 'git update-index'
 	     [--add] [--remove | --force-remove] [--replace]
 	     [--refresh] [-q] [--unmerged] [--ignore-missing]
-	     [--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <file>]\*
+	     [--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <file>]*
 	     [--chmod=(+|-)x]
 	     [--assume-unchanged | --no-assume-unchanged]
 	     [--skip-worktree | --no-skip-worktree]
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 	     [--info-only] [--index-info]
 	     [-z] [--stdin]
 	     [--verbose]
-	     [--] [<file>]\*
+	     [--] [<file>]*
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 09/17] Documentation/technical: avoid stray backslash in parse-options API docs

[Jonathan Nieder]

Due to some unpleasant interaction between the `quote', 'italics',
and `monospace` rules, a certain paragraph ends up rendered like so:

	‘short` is a character for the short option
	  (e.g. <tt>'e\’</tt> for <tt>-e</tt>, use <tt>0</tt> to omit),

Use the {apostrophe} to avoid this.

While at it, escape "->" strings: they are meant as a literal
two-character C operator, not a right-pointing arrow.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt |    8 ++++----
 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt b/Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt
index 312e3b2..c5d141c 100644
--- a/Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ The last element of the array must be `OPT_END()`.
 If not stated otherwise, interpret the arguments as follows:
 
 * `short` is a character for the short option
-  (e.g. `\'e\'` for `-e`, use `0` to omit),
+  (e.g. `{apostrophe}e{apostrophe}` for `-e`, use `0` to omit),
 
 * `long` is a string for the long option
   (e.g. `"example"` for `\--example`, use `NULL` to omit),
@@ -228,10 +228,10 @@ The function must be defined in this form:
 The callback mechanism is as follows:
 
 * Inside `func`, the only interesting member of the structure
-  given by `opt` is the void pointer `opt->value`.
-  `\*opt->value` will be the value that is saved into `var`, if you
+  given by `opt` is the void pointer `opt\->value`.
+  `\*opt\->value` will be the value that is saved into `var`, if you
   use `OPT_CALLBACK()`.
-  For example, do `*(unsigned long *)opt->value = 42;` to get 42
+  For example, do `*(unsigned long *)opt\->value = 42;` to get 42
   into an `unsigned long` variable.
 
 * Return value `0` indicates success and non-zero return
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 10/17] Documentation: remove stray backslash from "git bundle" manual

[Jonathan Nieder]

In v1.6.2.2~6^2~4 (Documentation: minor grammatical fixes
and rewording in git-bundle.txt, 2009-03-22), backslashes were
introduced before ~ to avoid introducing unintentional
superscripts.  In one paragraph there is only one ~, though,
making that not a candidate for quoting, and asciidoc 8.5.8
passes the backslash through so the man page says "\~10..master".

Maybe there is an asciidoc behavior change involved.

In any case, we should replace tildes with a {tilde} entity which
means the same thing regardless of where it is found.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Cc: David J. Mellor <dmellor@whistlingcat.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-bundle.txt |    8 ++++----
 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-bundle.txt b/Documentation/git-bundle.txt
index a5ed8fb..f0b75c7 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-bundle.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-bundle.txt
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ unbundle <file>::
 [git-rev-list-args...]::
        A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and
        'git rev-list', that specifies the specific objects and references
-       to transport.  For example, `master\~10..master` causes the
+       to transport.  For example, `master~10..master` causes the
        current master reference to be packaged along with all objects
        added since its 10th ancestor commit.  There is no explicit
        limit to the number of references and objects that may be
@@ -79,12 +79,12 @@ SPECIFYING REFERENCES
 
 'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by
 'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads.  References
-such as `master\~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
+such as `master{tilde}1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
 defining the basis.  More than one reference may be packaged, and more
 than one basis can be specified.  The objects packaged are those not
 contained in the union of the given bases.  Each basis can be
-specified explicitly (e.g. `^master\~10`), or implicitly (e.g.
-`master\~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
+specified explicitly (e.g. `^master{tilde}10`), or implicitly (e.g.
+`master{tilde}10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
 
 It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
 It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 11/17] Documentation: remove backslash before ~ in fast-import manual

[Jonathan Nieder]

Use the {tilde} entity to get a literal tilde without fuss.
With \~, asciidoc 8.5.2 (and probably earlier versions) keeps the
backslash in the output.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-fast-export.txt |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-fast-export.txt b/Documentation/git-fast-export.txt
index 98ec6b5..cbc31c1 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-fast-export.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-fast-export.txt
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ marks the same across runs.
 [git-rev-list-args...]::
        A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and
        'git rev-list', that specifies the specific objects and references
-       to export.  For example, `master\~10..master` causes the
+       to export.  For example, `master{tilde}10..master` causes the
        current master reference to be exported along with all objects
        added since its 10th ancestor commit.
 
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 12/17] Documentation: remove stray backslashes in rev-parse manual

[Jonathan Nieder]

Use the {asterisk} entity instead of \* or * to avoid both
stray backslashes in output and suppression of asterisks
misinterpreted as a bold-text delimiter.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt |    9 +++++----
 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt b/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
index be4c053..341ca90 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ OPTIONS
 	properly quoted for consumption by shell.  Useful when
 	you expect your parameter to contain whitespaces and
 	newlines (e.g. when using pickaxe `-S` with
-	'git diff-\*'). In contrast to the `--sq-quote` option,
+	'git diff-{asterisk}'). In contrast to the `--sq-quote` option,
 	the command input is still interpreted as usual.
 
 --not::
@@ -112,14 +112,15 @@ OPTIONS
 +
 If a `pattern` is given, only refs matching the given shell glob are
 shown.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing character (`?`,
-`\*`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix match by appending `/\*`.
+`{asterisk}`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix match by
+appending `/{asterisk}`.
 
 --glob=pattern::
 	Show all refs matching the shell glob pattern `pattern`. If
 	the pattern does not start with `refs/`, this is automatically
 	prepended.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing
-	character (`?`, `\*`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix
-	match by appending `/\*`.
+	character (`?`, `{asterisk}`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix
+	match by appending `/{asterisk}`.
 
 --show-toplevel::
 	Show the absolute path of the top-level directory.
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 13/17] Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion

[Jonathan Nieder]

Because there is no unescaped apostrophe to pair it with, asciidoc
does not consider this apostrophe a candidate for escaping and
the backslash passes through.

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-show-branch.txt |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
index 81ba296..01fc157 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ $ git show-branch master fixes mhf
 ------------------------------------------------
 
 These three branches all forked from a common commit, [master],
-whose commit message is "Add \'git show-branch\'". The "fixes"
-branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"".
-The "mhf" branch adds many other commits. The current branch
-is "master".
+whose commit message is "Add {apostrophe}git show-branch{apostrophe}".
+The "fixes" branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to
+"git reset"". The "mhf" branch adds many other commits.
+The current branch is "master".
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 14/17] Documentation: avoid stray backslashes in core tutorial

[Jonathan Nieder]

While at it:

 - remove some single-quotes that were being rendered as ’\n\';

 - do not escape ellipses (...) when they do not represent the
   literal three characters "...".  We may want to ensure the
   manpages render these as three ASCII periods to make the
   manual pages easier to search, but that would be a global
   output generation setting, not a context-specific thing;

Reported-by: Frédéric Brière <fbriere@fbriere.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/gitcore-tutorial.txt |   18 +++++++++---------
 1 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitcore-tutorial.txt b/Documentation/gitcore-tutorial.txt
index ed3ddc9..5e9c5eb 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitcore-tutorial.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitcore-tutorial.txt
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ An 'object' is identified by its 160-bit SHA1 hash, aka 'object name',
 and a reference to an object is always the 40-byte hex
 representation of that SHA1 name. The files in the `refs`
 subdirectory are expected to contain these hex references
-(usually with a final `\'\n\'` at the end), and you should thus
+(usually with a final `\n` at the end), and you should thus
 expect to see a number of 41-byte files containing these
 references in these `refs` subdirectories when you actually start
 populating your tree.
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ and this will just output the name of the resulting tree, in this case
 ----------------
 
 which is another incomprehensible object name. Again, if you want to,
-you can use `git cat-file -t 8988d\...` to see that this time the object
+you can use `git cat-file -t 8988d...` to see that this time the object
 is not a "blob" object, but a "tree" object (you can also use
 `git cat-file` to actually output the raw object contents, but you'll see
 mainly a binary mess, so that's less interesting).
@@ -436,8 +436,8 @@ $ git update-index hello
 (note how we didn't need the `\--add` flag this time, since git knew
 about the file already).
 
-Note what happens to the different 'git diff-\*' versions here. After
-we've updated `hello` in the index, `git diff-files -p` now shows no
+Note what happens to the different 'git diff-{asterisk}' versions here.
+After we've updated `hello` in the index, `git diff-files -p` now shows no
 differences, but `git diff-index -p HEAD` still *does* show that the
 current state is different from the state we committed. In fact, now
 'git diff-index' shows the same difference whether we use the `--cached`
@@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ and it will show what the last commit (in `HEAD`) actually changed.
 [NOTE]
 ============
 Here is an ASCII art by Jon Loeliger that illustrates how
-various diff-\* commands compare things.
+various 'diff-{asterisk}' commands compare things.
 
                       diff-tree
                        +----+
@@ -958,11 +958,11 @@ $ git show-branch --topo-order --more=1 master mybranch
 The first two lines indicate that it is showing the two branches
 and the first line of the commit log message from their
 top-of-the-tree commits, you are currently on `master` branch
-(notice the asterisk `\*` character), and the first column for
+(notice the asterisk `{asterisk}` character), and the first column for
 the later output lines is used to show commits contained in the
 `master` branch, and the second column for the `mybranch`
 branch. Three commits are shown along with their log messages.
-All of them have non blank characters in the first column (`*`
+All of them have non blank characters in the first column (`{asterisk}`
 shows an ordinary commit on the current branch, `-` is a merge commit), which
 means they are now part of the `master` branch. Only the "Some
 work" commit has the plus `+` character in the second column,
@@ -1092,7 +1092,7 @@ Downloader from http and https URL
 first obtains the topmost commit object name from the remote site
 by looking at the specified refname under `repo.git/refs/` directory,
 and then tries to obtain the
-commit object by downloading from `repo.git/objects/xx/xxx\...`
+commit object by downloading from `repo.git/objects/xx/xxx...`
 using the object name of that commit object.  Then it reads the
 commit object to find out its parent commits and the associate
 tree object; it repeats this process until it gets all the
@@ -1420,7 +1420,7 @@ packed, and stores the packed file in `.git/objects/pack`
 directory.
 
 [NOTE]
-You will see two files, `pack-\*.pack` and `pack-\*.idx`,
+You will see two files, `pack-{asterisk}.pack` and `pack-{asterisk}.idx`,
 in `.git/objects/pack` directory. They are closely related to
 each other, and if you ever copy them by hand to a different
 repository for whatever reason, you should make sure you copy
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 15/17] Documentation: avoid stray backslash in user manual

[Jonathan Nieder]

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/user-manual.txt |    4 ++--
 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
index 22aee34..fecc4eb 100644
--- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt
+++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
@@ -4251,9 +4251,9 @@ Two things are interesting here:
   negative numbers in case of different errors--and 0 on success.
 
 - the variable `sha1` in the function signature of `get_sha1()` is `unsigned
-  char \*`, but is actually expected to be a pointer to `unsigned
+  char {asterisk}`, but is actually expected to be a pointer to `unsigned
   char[20]`.  This variable will contain the 160-bit SHA-1 of the given
-  commit.  Note that whenever a SHA-1 is passed as `unsigned char \*`, it
+  commit.  Note that whenever a SHA-1 is passed as `unsigned char {asterisk}`, it
   is the binary representation, as opposed to the ASCII representation in
   hex characters, which is passed as `char *`.
 
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 16/17] Documentation: do not convert ... operator to ellipses

[Jonathan Nieder]

The symmetric difference or merge-base operator ... as used by
rev-list and diff is actually three period characters.  If it
gets replaced by an ellipsis glyph in the manual, that would
stop readers from copying and pasting it.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/git-checkout.txt     |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-push.txt         |    2 +-
 Documentation/git-rebase.txt       |    2 +-
 Documentation/rev-list-options.txt |    2 +-
 4 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt
index 1bacd2e..e015373 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch
 checks out the branch (instead of detaching).  You may also specify
 `-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`.
 +
-As a further special case, you may use `"A...B"` as a shortcut for the
+As a further special case, you may use `"A\...B"` as a shortcut for the
 merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can
 leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`.
 
diff --git a/Documentation/git-push.txt b/Documentation/git-push.txt
index 658ff2f..020955f 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-push.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-push.txt
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ summary::
 	For a successfully pushed ref, the summary shows the old and new
 	values of the ref in a form suitable for using as an argument to
 	`git log` (this is `<old>..<new>` in most cases, and
-	`<old>...<new>` for forced non-fast-forward updates).
+	`<old>\...<new>` for forced non-fast-forward updates).
 +
 For a failed update, more details are given:
 +
diff --git a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
index be23ad2..2ed62ca 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ OPTIONS
 	<upstream>.  May be any valid commit, and not just an
 	existing branch name.
 +
-As a special case, you may use "A...B" as a shortcut for the
+As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
 merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
 leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
 
diff --git a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
index cc562a0..e2237ae 100644
--- a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
@@ -321,7 +321,7 @@ excluded from the output.
 	reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
 	When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
 	exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
-	nor 'commit1...commit2' notations cannot be used).
+	nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
 +
 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

[PATCH 17/17] Documentation: remove stray backslashes from "Fighting regressions" article

[Jonathan Nieder]

The intended text is "it's O(N * T) vs O(N * T * M)".  Asciidoc
notices the spaces around the asterisks so there is no need to
escape them (and if you try, it passes the backslashes through).

Cc: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
That's the end of the series.  Thanks for reading.

 Documentation/git-bisect-lk2009.txt |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-bisect-lk2009.txt b/Documentation/git-bisect-lk2009.txt
index 86b3015..ed5ea29 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-bisect-lk2009.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-bisect-lk2009.txt
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ c * N * T + b * M * log2(M) tests
 where c is the number of rounds of test (so a small constant) and b is
 the ratio of bug per commit (hopefully a small constant too).
 
-So of course it's much better as it's O(N \* T) vs O(N \* T \* M) if
+So of course it's much better as it's O(N * T) vs O(N * T * M) if
 you would test everything after each commit.
 
 This means that test suites are good to prevent some bugs from being
-- 
1.7.2.2.536.g42dab.dirty

Re: [PATCH 13/17] Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion

[Thomas Rast]

Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
> index 81ba296..01fc157 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
> @@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ $ git show-branch master fixes mhf
>  ------------------------------------------------
>  
>  These three branches all forked from a common commit, [master],
> -whose commit message is "Add \'git show-branch\'". The "fixes"
> -branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"".
> -The "mhf" branch adds many other commits. The current branch
> -is "master".
> +whose commit message is "Add {apostrophe}git show-branch{apostrophe}".
> +The "fixes" branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to
> +"git reset"". The "mhf" branch adds many other commits.
> +The current branch is "master".

What does this apply on?  I tried 'git am -3' but it says

  Applying: Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion
  Using index info to reconstruct a base tree...
  error: patch failed: Documentation/git-show-branch.txt:168
  error: Documentation/git-show-branch.txt: patch does not apply
  Did you hand edit your patch?
  It does not apply to blobs recorded in its index.
  Cannot fall back to three-way merge.
  Patch failed at 0013 Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch

Re: [PATCH 13/17] Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

Hi,

Thomas Rast writes:
> Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> > diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
> > index 81ba296..01fc157 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/git-show-branch.txt
> > @@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ $ git show-branch master fixes mhf
> >  ------------------------------------------------
> >  
> >  These three branches all forked from a common commit, [master],
> > -whose commit message is "Add \'git show-branch\'". The "fixes"
> > -branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to "git reset"".
> > -The "mhf" branch adds many other commits. The current branch
> > -is "master".
> > +whose commit message is "Add {apostrophe}git show-branch{apostrophe}".
> > +The "fixes" branch adds one commit "Introduce "reset type" flag to
> > +"git reset"". The "mhf" branch adds many other commits.
> > +The current branch is "master".
> 
> What does this apply on?  I tried 'git am -3' but it says
> 
>   Applying: Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion
>   Using index info to reconstruct a base tree...
>   error: patch failed: Documentation/git-show-branch.txt:168
>   error: Documentation/git-show-branch.txt: patch does not apply
>   Did you hand edit your patch?
>   It does not apply to blobs recorded in its index.
>   Cannot fall back to three-way merge.
>   Patch failed at 0013 Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion

This series has already been merged into 'pu': jn/doc-backslash in
d4394935b3. Did you try applying to 'master'?

-- Ram

Re: [RFC/PATCH 00/17] unexpected backslashes in man pages

[Thomas Rast]

Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> This series is longer than I would like, and I am not happy to
> impose the review burden.  So if something does not look obviously
> correct at a glance, please let me know and I'll try to simplify it.
> 
> The topic: as Frédéric Brière noticed in
> <http://bugs.debian.org/540001>, various man pages have collected
> backslashes where they don't belong.

Apart from 13/17 which I was too lazy to fix manually, I have looked
through all the results.  The patches fix a lot of stray backslashes,
exactly as claimed.  For the record, this is on asciidoc 8.4.5 with
ASCIIDOC8=1 ASCIIDOC_NO_ROFF=1 GNU_ROFF=1.

I did some random checking on a box with asciidoc 8.2.7, which is the
oldest that I have at hand.  It seems to fix the issues there, too; in
any case I didn't find any of the regressions that I wanted to check
for.

So,

  Acked-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>

for the series.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch

Re: [PATCH 13/17] Documentation: remove stray backslash in show-branch discussion

[Jonathan Nieder]

Thomas Rast wrote:

> What does this apply on?  I tried 'git am -3' but it says

Sorry about that.  Hand-tweaking accident (I did not leave any
trailing context, so patch application tools are naturally not so
happy with it).

Thanks for the review!