The "-l" option is short for "--create-reflog". This has
caused much confusion over the years. Most people expect it
to work as "--list", because that would match the other
"mode" options like -d/--delete and -m/--move, as well as
the similar -l/--list option of git-tag.
Adding to the confusion, using "-l" _appears_ to work as
"--list" in some cases:
$ git branch -l
* master
because the branch command defaults to listing (so even
trying to specify --list in the command above is redundant).
But that may bite the user later when they add a pattern,
like:
$ git branch -l foo
which does not return an empty list, but in fact creates a
new branch (with a reflog, naturally) called "foo".
It's also probably quite uncommon for people to actually use
"-l" to create a reflog. Since 0bee591869 (Enable reflogs by
default in any repository with a working directory.,
2006-12-14), this is the default in non-bare repositories.
So it's rather unfortunate that the feature squats on the
short-and-sweet "-l" (which was only added in 3a4b3f269c
(Create/delete branch ref logs., 2006-05-19), meaning there
were only 7 months where it was actually useful).
Let's deprecate "-l" in hopes of eventually dropping it
(it's a little too soon to repurpose it to "--list", but we
may even do that eventually).
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/git-branch.txt | 3 ++-
builtin/branch.c | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-branch.txt
index b3084c99c1..b959df1cbf 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-branch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-branch.txt
@@ -91,7 +91,6 @@ OPTIONS
-D::
Shortcut for `--delete --force`.
--l::
--create-reflog::
Create the branch's reflog. This activates recording of
all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date
@@ -101,6 +100,8 @@ OPTIONS
The negated form `--no-create-reflog` only overrides an earlier
`--create-reflog`, but currently does not negate the setting of
`core.logAllRefUpdates`.
++
+The `-l` option is a deprecated synonym for `--create-reflog`.
-f::
--force::
diff --git a/builtin/branch.c b/builtin/branch.c
index 6d0cea9d4b..e50a5a1680 100644
--- a/builtin/branch.c
+++ b/builtin/branch.c
@@ -570,6 +570,15 @@ static int edit_branch_description(const char *branch_name)
return 0;
}
+static int deprecated_reflog_option_cb(const struct option *opt,
+ const char *arg, int unset)
+{
+ warning("the '-l' alias for '--create-reflog' is deprecated;");
+ warning("it will be removed in a future version of Git");
+ *(int *)opt->value = !unset;
+ return 0;
+}
+
int cmd_branch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
{
int delete = 0, rename = 0, copy = 0, force = 0, list = 0;
@@ -612,7 +621,13 @@ int cmd_branch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
OPT_BIT('c', "copy", ©, N_("copy a branch and its reflog"), 1),
OPT_BIT('C', NULL, ©, N_("copy a branch, even if target exists"), 2),
OPT_BOOL(0, "list", &list, N_("list branch names")),
- OPT_BOOL('l', "create-reflog", &reflog, N_("create the branch's reflog")),
+ OPT_BOOL(0, "create-reflog", &reflog, N_("create the branch's reflog")),
+ {
+ OPTION_CALLBACK, 'l', NULL, &reflog, NULL,
+ N_("deprecated synonym for --create-reflog"),
+ PARSE_OPT_NOARG | PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN,
+ deprecated_reflog_option_cb
+ },
OPT_BOOL(0, "edit-description", &edit_description,
N_("edit the description for the branch")),
OPT__FORCE(&force, N_("force creation, move/rename, deletion"), PARSE_OPT_NOCOMPLETE),
--
2.17.0.rc1.509.g060626845b
