Re: Git alias syntax help

[Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email>]

Hi,

On 15/01/2020 18:13, Jeff King wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 01:13:17AM +0200, Σταύρος Ντέντος wrote:
>
>>>> new = "!f() { : git log ; git log \"${1}@{1}..${1}@{0}\" \"$@\" ; } ; f"
>>>> new = !f() { : git log ; git log "${1}@{1}..${1}@{0}" "$@" ; } ; f
>>> Only the first one is correct. In addition to the quotes in the second
>>> one being eaten by the config parser, the unquoted semicolon starts a
>>> comment.
>> Could somehow the latter "become" the correct option?
> Unfortunately not without breaking compatibility of existing config
> files.
>
>> Especially in the case of `!sh`:
>> 1) You need to quote everything after `=` sign ("forced" double quotes), then
>> 2) `sh -c` needs another set (singles are most safe here, I think), and
>> 3) If, for some reason, you need to quote further ("$@" would be a
>> common suspect usually)
> Yes, the quoting can get pretty hairy. If your command is complicated, I
> suggest writing it as a separate script and dropping it into your $PATH
> as git-new. Then "git new" will run it automatically (and it's not even
> any less efficient; it still ends up with a single shell invocation).
>
>> Thank you very much for a complete explaination of all of this .
>>
>> Can some of this be documented somewhere?
>> Are they somewhere and I missed them?
> I think the config syntax around quoting is described in "git help
> config" (see the section Syntax). The shell parts seem out of scope for
> Git's manpages themselves, though it sounds like maybe some examples you
> found could stand to be fixed (and/or to call out the subtlety).
>
>> If nothing more, a link to this e-mail chain either on the wiki (if
>> https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Aliases is an official page) or
>> on git-alias help (here
>> https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Git-Aliases or in some
>> "advanced" section, which I cannot find)
>>
>> If https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Aliases is an official page,
>> then: was this written for an earlier version?
>> Could it also be updated?
> I think both of the issues you mentioned have always been true. That
> wiki is open to editing by the world,

I took the liberty of adding a small subsection on quoting based on this
discussion, and adding a link to it. Feedback on my ignorance welcomed ;-)
>  so it's possible that somebody
> just added bad examples (and fixes would be welcome).
>
> I don't know the book content very well. Looking at the page you
> linked, I don't think it says anything _wrong_, but it definitely
> doesn't discuss more advanced alias usage. I suspect that would be a
> welcome addition; they take contributions at
> https://github.com/progit/progit2.
>
> -Peff
Philip