On Wed, Mar 06, 2013 at 09:10:57AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote: > I do not know if mentioning what -A does in the description for -u > (and vice versa) makes it easier to understand or more confusing > (not rhetorical: I suspect some may find it easier and others not). > > But "and the default behaviour will..." here _is_ confusing. After > reading this patch three times, I still cannot tell what "default" > you are trying to describe. Is it "-u" without arguments? Is it > "add" without "-u" nor "-A"? Is it something else??? I meant the behavior without -A or -u. This could be fixed directly by s/the default behavior will/with neither -A nor -u we/. But we can also keep revising -- there's definitely more room to make this clearer! I suggest new versions at the bottom of this message. I do think that it's important that the reader be able to see clearly what the option does as a contrast with what the command does without the option. Normally in a man page this is how the option is described in the first place -- for example, the next entry in this very man page says "Record *only* the fact that the path will be added later", rather than "Record the fact that ..." These two descriptions suffer from not doing that, so that it's not clear which parts of the behavior they describe are just what 'add' does with no options and which parts are actually due to the option. > Whenever you see an incomprehensible technobabble followed by "That > means", "In other words", etc., you (not limited to Greg-you but > figuratively "everybody") should see if it makes it easier to read > to remove everything up to that "That means" [...] Seems like a reasonable heuristic. > -u:: > --update:: > Update modified and/or removed paths in the index > that match <pathspec> with the current state of the > working tree files. No new path is added because > this considers only the paths that are already in > the index. > > -A:: > --all:: > Update the index to record the current state of the > working tree files that match <pathspec>. Note that > new paths will be added to the index, in addition to > modified and/or removed paths. These are good -- I especially like that they're shorter. I do think they're still likely to be confusing. The lead sentences are hard to tell apart from each other or one's mental model of what 'add' alone does, though the contrasts that follow them help. I also think the lead sentence for '--all' isn't really correct -- we update the index not only for the working tree files that match <pathspec>, but also where there is no working tree file, only an index entry. (So the sentence actually describes what 'add' with neither option does.) Maybe it's worth taking a step back. The overall taxonomy is * 'add' alone considers matching filenames in the working tree * 'add -u' considers matching filenames in the index * 'add -A' considers matching filenames in both the index and the working tree and in each case we make the index match the working tree on those files. Or, put another way, * 'add' alone modifies and adds files * 'add -u' modifies and removes files * 'add -A' modifies, adds, and removes files Here's a crack at making those distinctions clear. I've also tried to make the descriptions as parallel as possible, as what they're saying is very similar. -u:: --update:: Update the index just where it already has an entry matching <pathspec>. This removes as well as modifies index entries to match the working tree, but adds no new files. -A:: --all:: Update the index not only where the working tree has a file matching <pathspec> but also where the index already has an entry. This adds, modifies, and removes index entries to match the working tree. These are the shortest in the discussion so far, and I think they're also the clearest. Then follow both with the "If no <pathspec>" paragraph. I just noticed that the paragraph actually needs a small modification to fit '-A', too. New patch below. Greg From: Greg Price <price@xxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 02:08:21 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] add: Clarify documentation of -A and -u The documentation of '-A' and '-u' is very confusing for someone who doesn't already know what they do. Describe them with fewer words and clearer parallelism to each other and to the behavior of plain 'add'. Also mention the default <pathspec> for '-A' as well as '-u', because it applies to both. Signed-off-by: Greg Price <price@xxxxxxx> --- Documentation/git-add.txt | 22 ++++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-add.txt b/Documentation/git-add.txt index 388a225..b0944e5 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-add.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-add.txt @@ -100,12 +100,9 @@ apply to the index. See EDITING PATCHES below. -u:: --update:: - Only match <pathspec> against already tracked files in - the index rather than the working tree. That means that it - will never stage new files, but that it will stage modified - new contents of tracked files and that it will remove files - from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree - have been removed. + Update the index just where it already has an entry matching + <pathspec>. This removes as well as modifies index entries to + match the working tree, but adds no new files. + If no <pathspec> is given, the current version of Git defaults to "."; in other words, update all tracked files in the current directory @@ -114,10 +111,15 @@ of Git, hence the form without <pathspec> should not be used. -A:: --all:: - Like `-u`, but match <pathspec> against files in the - working tree in addition to the index. That means that it - will find new files as well as staging modified content and - removing files that are no longer in the working tree. + Update the index not only where the working tree has a file + matching <pathspec> but also where the index already has an + entry. This adds, modifies, and removes index entries to + match the working tree. ++ +If no <pathspec> is given, the current version of Git defaults to +"."; in other words, update all files in the current directory +and its subdirectories. This default will change in a future version +of Git, hence the form without <pathspec> should not be used. -N:: --intent-to-add:: -- 1.7.11.3 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html