Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> The -e option added in 7950571ad7 ("A few more options for
> git-cat-file", 2005-12-03) has always errored out with message on
> stderr saying that the provided object is malformed, currently:
>
> $ git cat-file -e malformed; echo $?
> fatal: Not a valid object name malformed
> 128
>
> A careful reader of this documentation would be mislead into thinking
> the could write:
>
> if ! git cat-file -e "$object" [...]
It is arguable if such a reader is careful or careless. I'd rather drop
s/careful // there ;-)
> As opposed to:
>
> if ! git cat-file -e "$object" 2>/dev/null [...]
>
> To check whether some arbitrary $object string was both valid, and
> pointed to an object that exists.
>
> Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Documentation/git-cat-file.txt | 7 ++++---
> 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
