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-Status: No, score=-4.9 required=3.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,NICE_REPLY_A, SPF_HELO_PASS,SPF_PASS shortcircuit=no autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by dcvr.yhbt.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id EE6E01F4B4 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2020 21:01:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S373528AbgJ0VBB (ORCPT ); Tue, 27 Oct 2020 17:01:01 -0400 Received: from smtp.hosts.co.uk ([85.233.160.19]:28613 "EHLO smtp.hosts.co.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S373514AbgJ0VA5 (ORCPT ); Tue, 27 Oct 2020 17:00:57 -0400 Received: from host-89-243-187-160.as13285.net ([89.243.187.160] helo=[192.168.1.37]) by smtp.hosts.co.uk with esmtpa (Exim) (envelope-from ) id 1kXW5O-000Bc8-Aw; Tue, 27 Oct 2020 21:00:54 +0000 Subject: Re: [PATCH] documentation symlink restrictions for .git* files To: Junio C Hamano , Jeff King Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Jonathan Nieder References: <20201005071751.GA2290770@coredump.intra.peff.net> <20201005121609.GA2907272@coredump.intra.peff.net> <6c0a0036-e217-a334-2a74-dd59a4592c1f@iee.email> <20201023081711.GB4012156@coredump.intra.peff.net> <8bb54778-507c-2e3f-d35a-5e32edb8bee7@iee.email> <20201026225300.GA23128@coredump.intra.peff.net> <20201027072648.GG3005508@coredump.intra.peff.net> From: Philip Oakley Message-ID: <21e4bac1-b3ef-e28f-586d-fe17baf6b15e@iee.email> Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2020 21:00:53 +0000 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.12.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Language: en-GB Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org On 27/10/2020 18:45, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Jeff King writes: > >>> DESCRIPTION >>> ----------- >>> >>> -A `gitattributes` file is a simple text file that gives >>> -`attributes` to pathnames. >>> +A `gitattributes` file is a simple text file (it cannot be a >>> +symbolic link to anything) that gives `attributes` to pathnames. >> I worried that even a short mention like this would be distracting. Not >> because it's so long, but because it's right there in the very first >> sentence, and I really think this is a corner case that most people >> would not even think about. >> >> So it is helpful if you are looking for info on symlinks and these >> files, but probably clutter if you are looking for something else. >> >> I have to admit I don't feel all that strongly either way, though. > I don't, either, and as I said, I found that the placement of new > text was OK. > > I do think that the extra text above is the right thing to do. We should be informing readers early about things that are expressly prohibited. Leaving just the note till nearly the end of the rather long attributes/ignore man pages makes it very hard to discover for frustrated users, which would accidentally reinforce the idea of the docs being poor (rather than being focussed). Philip