From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on dcvr.yhbt.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-ASN: AS31976 209.132.180.0/23 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.2 required=3.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI,T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD shortcircuit=no autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by dcvr.yhbt.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id F34942036D for ; Tue, 21 Nov 2017 21:29:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751479AbdKUV3X (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:29:23 -0500 Received: from cpanel2.indieserve.net ([199.212.143.6]:40659 "EHLO cpanel2.indieserve.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751229AbdKUV3W (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:29:22 -0500 Received: from cpec03f0ed08c7f-cm68b6fcf980b0.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com ([174.118.92.171]:38436 helo=localhost.localdomain) by cpanel2.indieserve.net with esmtpsa (TLSv1.2:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1eHG6b-00089Y-DJ for git@vger.kernel.org; Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:29:21 -0500 Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2017 16:27:59 -0500 (EST) From: "Robert P. J. Day" X-X-Sender: rpjday@localhost.localdomain To: Git Mailing list Subject: [PATCH v2] gitcli: tweak "man gitcli" for clarity Message-ID: User-Agent: Alpine 2.21 (LFD 202 2017-01-01) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - cpanel2.indieserve.net X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - vger.kernel.org X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - crashcourse.ca X-Get-Message-Sender-Via: cpanel2.indieserve.net: authenticated_id: rpjday+crashcourse.ca/only user confirmed/virtual account not confirmed X-Authenticated-Sender: cpanel2.indieserve.net: rpjday@crashcourse.ca X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir: Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org No major changes, just some rewording and showing some variations of general Git commands. Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day --- diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt index 9f13266a6..d690d1ff0 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ gitcli DESCRIPTION ----------- -This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI. +This manual describes the conventions used throughout Git CLI. Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their @@ -32,32 +32,35 @@ arguments. Here are the rules: between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. - * Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors - out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a + * Without a disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but can + error out, asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to disambiguate. + When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing -disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. +a disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect - them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different - things: + them from getting globbed by the shell. The following commands have + two different meanings: + -------------------------------- $ git checkout -- *.c + $ git checkout -- \*.c +$ git checkout -- "*.c" +$ git checkout -- '*.c' -------------------------------- + -The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking -the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version -in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking -the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your -working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ -see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter -you will. +The first command lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking +the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version in +the index. The latter three variations pass the `*.c` to Git, and you are +asking the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to +your working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will +_not_ see `hello.c` in your working tree with the first command, but with +the latter three variations, you will. * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory, using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA http://crashcourse.ca Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday ========================================================================