Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Ulrich Gemkow]

Hello,

A trivial enhancement request:

All commands which require that the author is set (and complain if
it is not set) should accept the option --author.

At least the command stash does not accept this option. We are using
git version 2.17.1 (Ubuntu 18.04).

Thanks for the great work!

Best regards

-Ulrich

-- 
| Ulrich Gemkow
| University of Stuttgart
| Institute of Communication Networks and Computer Engineering (IKR)

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Ulrich,

On Tue, 28 Aug 2018, Ulrich Gemkow wrote:

> A trivial enhancement request:
> 
> All commands which require that the author is set (and complain if
> it is not set) should accept the option --author.
> 
> At least the command stash does not accept this option. We are using
> git version 2.17.1 (Ubuntu 18.04).

The `stash` command only incidentally requires that the author is set, as
it calls `git commit` internally (which records the author). As stashes
are intended to be local only, that author information was never meant to
be a vital part of the `stash`.

I could imagine that an even better enhancement request would ask for `git
stash` to work even if `user.name` is not configured.

However, to get you unblocked: what you ask for exists already, in some
form:

	git \
		-c user.name="Ulrich Gemkow" \
		-c user.email=ulrich.gemkow@ikr.uni-stuttgart.de \
		stash

Granted, this is not the nicest way to specify it, but you are probably
scripting things for environments where you do not really want to
configure an author, right?

Ciao,
Johannes

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Junio C Hamano]

Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:

> The `stash` command only incidentally requires that the author is set, as
> it calls `git commit` internally (which records the author). As stashes
> are intended to be local only, that author information was never meant to
> be a vital part of the `stash`.
>
> I could imagine that an even better enhancement request would ask for `git
> stash` to work even if `user.name` is not configured.

This would make a good bite-sized microproject, worth marking it as
#leftoverbits unless somebody is already working on it ;-)

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Junio,

On Wed, 29 Aug 2018, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
> 
> > The `stash` command only incidentally requires that the author is set, as
> > it calls `git commit` internally (which records the author). As stashes
> > are intended to be local only, that author information was never meant to
> > be a vital part of the `stash`.
> >
> > I could imagine that an even better enhancement request would ask for `git
> > stash` to work even if `user.name` is not configured.
> 
> This would make a good bite-sized microproject, worth marking it as
> #leftoverbits unless somebody is already working on it ;-)

Right.

What is our currently-favored approach to this, again? Do we have a
favorite wiki page to list those, or do we have a bug tracker for such
mini-projects?

Once I know, I will add this, with enough information to get anybody
interested started.

Ciao,
Dscho

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Thu, Aug 30 2018, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> Hi Junio,
>
> On Wed, 29 Aug 2018, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
>> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
>>
>> > The `stash` command only incidentally requires that the author is set, as
>> > it calls `git commit` internally (which records the author). As stashes
>> > are intended to be local only, that author information was never meant to
>> > be a vital part of the `stash`.
>> >
>> > I could imagine that an even better enhancement request would ask for `git
>> > stash` to work even if `user.name` is not configured.
>>
>> This would make a good bite-sized microproject, worth marking it as
>> #leftoverbits unless somebody is already working on it ;-)
>
> Right.
>
> What is our currently-favored approach to this, again? Do we have a
> favorite wiki page to list those, or do we have a bug tracker for such
> mini-projects?
>
> Once I know, I will add this, with enough information to get anybody
> interested started.

I believe the "official" way, such as it is, is you just put
#leftoverbits in your E-Mail, then search the list archives,
e.g. https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits

So e.g. I've taken to putting this in my own E-Mails where I spot
something I'd like to note as a TODO that I (or someone else) could work
on later:
https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits+f%3Aavarab%40gmail.com

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Johannes Schindelin]

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Hi Ævar,

On Thu, 30 Aug 2018, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 30 2018, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 29 Aug 2018, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> >
> >> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
> >>
> >> > The `stash` command only incidentally requires that the author is set, as
> >> > it calls `git commit` internally (which records the author). As stashes
> >> > are intended to be local only, that author information was never meant to
> >> > be a vital part of the `stash`.
> >> >
> >> > I could imagine that an even better enhancement request would ask for `git
> >> > stash` to work even if `user.name` is not configured.
> >>
> >> This would make a good bite-sized microproject, worth marking it as
> >> #leftoverbits unless somebody is already working on it ;-)
> >
> > Right.
> >
> > What is our currently-favored approach to this, again? Do we have a
> > favorite wiki page to list those, or do we have a bug tracker for such
> > mini-projects?
> >
> > Once I know, I will add this, with enough information to get anybody
> > interested started.
> 
> I believe the "official" way, such as it is, is you just put
> #leftoverbits in your E-Mail, then search the list archives,
> e.g. https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits
> 
> So e.g. I've taken to putting this in my own E-Mails where I spot
> something I'd like to note as a TODO that I (or someone else) could work
> on later:
> https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits+f%3Aavarab%40gmail.com

That is a poor way to list the current micro-projects, as it is totally
non-obvious to the casual interested person which projects are still
relevant, and which ones have been addressed already.

In a bug tracker, you can at least add a comment stating that something
has been addressed, or made a lot easier by another topic.

In a mailing list archive, those mails are immutable, and you cannot
update squat.

Ciao,
Johannes

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Thu, Aug 30 2018, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> Hi Ævar,
>
> On Thu, 30 Aug 2018, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Aug 30 2018, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>>
>> > On Wed, 29 Aug 2018, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>> >
>> >> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
>> >>
>> >> > The `stash` command only incidentally requires that the author is set, as
>> >> > it calls `git commit` internally (which records the author). As stashes
>> >> > are intended to be local only, that author information was never meant to
>> >> > be a vital part of the `stash`.
>> >> >
>> >> > I could imagine that an even better enhancement request would ask for `git
>> >> > stash` to work even if `user.name` is not configured.
>> >>
>> >> This would make a good bite-sized microproject, worth marking it as
>> >> #leftoverbits unless somebody is already working on it ;-)
>> >
>> > Right.
>> >
>> > What is our currently-favored approach to this, again? Do we have a
>> > favorite wiki page to list those, or do we have a bug tracker for such
>> > mini-projects?
>> >
>> > Once I know, I will add this, with enough information to get anybody
>> > interested started.
>>
>> I believe the "official" way, such as it is, is you just put
>> #leftoverbits in your E-Mail, then search the list archives,
>> e.g. https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits
>>
>> So e.g. I've taken to putting this in my own E-Mails where I spot
>> something I'd like to note as a TODO that I (or someone else) could work
>> on later:
>> https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits+f%3Aavarab%40gmail.com
>
> That is a poor way to list the current micro-projects, as it is totally
> non-obvious to the casual interested person which projects are still
> relevant, and which ones have been addressed already.

I don't think this is ideal. To be clear and in reply to both yours and
Junio's E-Mail. I meant "official" in scare quotes in the least official
way possible.

I.e. that you need to search the mailing list archive if you want to see
what these #leftoverbits are, because the full set is stored nowhere
else.

> In a bug tracker, you can at least add a comment stating that something
> has been addressed, or made a lot easier by another topic.

Yeah, a bunch of things suck about it, although I will say at least for
notes I'm leaving for myself I'm using it in a way that I wouldn't
bother to use a bugtracker, so in many cases it's the difference between
offhandendly saying "oh b.t.w. we should fix xyz in way abc
#leftoverbits" and not having a bug at all, because filing a bug /
curating a tracker etc. is a lot more work.

> In a mailing list archive, those mails are immutable, and you cannot
> update squat.

In a lot of bugtrackers you can't update existing comments either, you
make a new one noting some new status. Similarly you can send a new mail
with the correct In-Reply-To.

That doesn't solve all the issues, but helps in many cases.

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Junio C Hamano]

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

> I believe the "official" way, such as it is, is you just put
> #leftoverbits in your E-Mail, then search the list archives,
> e.g. https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits

I think that technique has been around long enough to be called a
recognised way, but I do not think it is "the" official way.  It is
one of the efforts to allow us remember what we might want to work
on, and focuses on not wasting too much efforts in curating.
Another effort to allow us remember is http://crbug.com/git that is
run by Jonathan Nieder.

Anybody can participate in curating the latter.  The former is
uncurated and deliberately kept informal, but will stay a usable way
until clueless people catch up with the practice and mark any random
garbage they come up with with the marking word.  I myself try to
refrain from using it when I raise the idea/issue for the first time
to avoid "ah, it turns out that it is not such a great idea after
thinking about it for a while"--rather I try to limit my use to my
responses as a reaction to somebody else's idea/issue.  That way, I
can make sure that messages with the marking word from me has idea
supported by at least two people, one of which is known to me to
have a good taste, so mailing list search "from:me #leftoverbits"
would stay meaningful.

Re: Trivial enhancement: All commands which require an author should accept --author

[Jonathan Nieder]

Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

>> I believe the "official" way, such as it is, is you just put
>> #leftoverbits in your E-Mail, then search the list archives,
>> e.g. https://public-inbox.org/git/?q=%23leftoverbits
>
> I think that technique has been around long enough to be called a
> recognised way, but I do not think it is "the" official way.  It is
> one of the efforts to allow us remember what we might want to work
> on, and focuses on not wasting too much efforts in curating.
> Another effort to allow us remember is http://crbug.com/git that is
> run by Jonathan Nieder.
>
> Anybody can participate in curating the latter.

Yes, exactly.

Ævar, if you would like to keep better track of #leftoverbits, please
feel free to make use of https://crbug.com/git/new. It even has a
"leftover bit" template you can use.

Thanks and hope that helps,
Jonathan