Re: [PATCH v3] glossary: add definition for overlay

[Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>]

Hi, sorry for the late response..

On 17/03/2019 20:19, Thomas Gummerer wrote:
> Add a definition for what overlay means in the context of git, to
> clarify the recently introduced overlay-mode in git checkout.
>
> Helped-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
> Helped-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
> Signed-off-by: Thomas Gummerer <t.gummerer@gmail.com>
> ---
>
> v3 incorporates Junios suggestions from [*1*], and clarifies that this
> only applies to checking out from the index or a tree-ish, and
> clarifies that the files are updated like in the destination directory
> of 'cp -R'.  I thought of making the same clarification for 'rsync
> --delete' as well, however I think with it being explicitly specified
> for 'cp -R', readers should be able to deduce that we are talking
> about the destination directory there as well.
As a historically Windows user, we should ensure that the meaning is 
clear to all without the otherwise helpful *nix command examples.
>
> *1*: <xmqq5zsnh7my.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
>
>   Documentation/glossary-content.txt | 9 +++++++++
>   1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
> index 023ca95e7c..0f29075551 100644
> --- a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
> @@ -287,6 +287,15 @@ This commit is referred to as a "merge commit", or sometimes just a
>   	origin/name-of-upstream-branch, which you can see using
>   	`git branch -r`.
>   
> +[[def_overlay]]overlay::
> +	Only update and add files to the working directory, but don't
> +	delete them, similar to how 'cp -R' would update the contents
perhaps  s/them/any files/
> +	in the destination directory.  This is the default mode in a
> +	<<def_checkout,checkout>> when checking out files from the
> +	<<def_index,index>> or a <<def_tree-ish,tree-ish>>.  In
> +	contrast, no-overlay mode also deletes tracked files not

understanding the past/future distinction is tricky here. Maybe 'deletes 
previously tracked files that are no longer present in the new source'.

It's tricky talking about deleting things that are not there.

> +	present in the source, similar to 'rsync --delete'.
> +
>   [[def_pack]]pack::
>   	A set of objects which have been compressed into one file (to save space
>   	or to transmit them efficiently).

--

Philip