Re: [PATCH 2/6] Documentation/config: mention "now" and "never" for 'expire' settings

[Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>]

On Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 9:41 PM, Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> On 07/23/2015 09:00 PM, Eric Sunshine wrote:
>> In addition to approxidate-style values ("2.months.ago", "yesterday"),
>> consumers of 'gc.*expire*' configuration variables also accept and
>> respect 'now'/'all' ("do it immediately") and 'never'/'false' ("suppress
>> entirely").
>>
>> Suggested-by: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
>> Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
>> ---
>>  gc.pruneExpire::
>>       When 'git gc' is run, it will call 'prune --expire 2.weeks.ago'.
>>       Override the grace period with this config variable.  The value
>> -     "now" may be used to disable this  grace period and always prune
>> -     unreachable objects immediately.
>> +     "now" may be used to disable this grace period and always prune
>> +     unreachable objects immediately; or "never" to suppress pruning.
>
> A semicolon should be used without a conjunction, and the parts of a
> sentence joined by a semicolon should be independent clauses. So this
> should probably be
>
>                                                      [...] The value
>     "now" may be used to disable this grace period and always prune
>     unreachable objects immediately, or "never" may be used to
>     suppress pruning.

I was absent from school that day...

>> @@ -1328,7 +1330,8 @@ gc.reflogExpireUnreachable::
>>  gc.<ref>.reflogExpireUnreachable::
>>       'git reflog expire' removes reflog entries older than
>>       this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
>> -     defaults to 30 days.  With "<pattern>" (e.g. "refs/stash")
>> +     defaults to 30 days. The value "all" expires all entries; and
>> +     "false" disables expiration. With "<pattern>" (e.g. "refs/stash")
>>       in the middle, the setting applies only to the refs that
>>       match the <pattern>.
>
> Also, I wonder why you suggest "now"/"never" for the first two settings,
> but "all"/"false" for the second two. Wouldn't it be less confusing to
> be consistent?

It was intentional due to the way I worded the sentence. It sounded
slightly strange to my ear to say:

    The value "now" expires all entries; and "never"
    disables expiration.

whereas:

    The value "all" expires all entries; ...

sounded nice. But, upon reflection, with a slight re-wording[1], "all"
and "never" work, as well.

[1]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/274828