Re: [PATCH] transport, send-pack: append period to up-to-date message

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 02:21:00PM -0700, Stefan Beller wrote:

> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Yong Bakos <junk@humanoriented.com> wrote:
> > Appending a period to "Everything up-to-date" makes the output message
> > consistent with similar output in builtin/merge.c.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Yong Bakos <ybakos@humanoriented.com>
> > ---
> >  builtin/send-pack.c | 2 +-
> >  transport.c         | 2 +-
> >  2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/builtin/send-pack.c b/builtin/send-pack.c
> > index 1ff5a67..67d9304 100644
> > --- a/builtin/send-pack.c
> > +++ b/builtin/send-pack.c
> 
> While consistency is a good idea in general, I wonder how that applies here.
> git-send-pack is a low level (i.e. plumbing) command.
> 
>        The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics) to
>        these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable than
>        Porcelain level commands, because these commands are primarily for
>        scripted use. The interface to Porcelain commands on the other hand are
>        subject to change in order to improve the end user experience.
> 
> So if another porcelain exists and compares the output string
> exactly, this would be a regression for them. That is why I'd refrain
> from updating these strings

I think messages to stderr are generally fair game for changing, even in
plumbing. In many cases they are also translated (and I would argue that
these messages probably should be translated, too).

That being said, CodingGuidelines says:

   - Do not end error messages with a full stop.

This isn't an error message exactly, but I think it's in the same vein.
I will note that we have not historically been consistent here, though
(as evidenced by the noted message in git-merge).

-Peff