Pascal Roeleven <dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> In my case I looked into the documentation, used '-h' exactly as
> described ('<refs>' is optional) and it didn't produce the output as
> described. If you ask me, either the code or the documentation should
> be changed.
Yeah, I tend to agree that documentation could be better.
You may think that nobody would ask your opinion, but proposing a
change by sending a patch often makes you heard around here ;-)
Thanks.
-- >8 --
Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: clarify that `-h` alone stands for `help`
We seem to be getting new users who get confused every 20 months or
so with this "-h consistently wants to give help, but the commands
to which `-h` may feel like a good short-form option want it to mean
something else." compromise.
Let's make sure that the readers know that `git cmd -h` (with no
other arguments) is a way to get usage text, even for commands like
ls-remote and grep.
Also extend the description that is already in gitcli.txt, as it is
clear that users still get confused with the current text.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt | 4 +++-
Documentation/gitcli.txt | 5 +++++
2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt b/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt
index a2ea1fd687..0a5c8b7d49 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt
@@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ OPTIONS
Limit to only refs/heads and refs/tags, respectively.
These options are _not_ mutually exclusive; when given
both, references stored in refs/heads and refs/tags are
- displayed.
+ displayed. Note that `git ls-remote -h` used without
+ anything else on the command line gives help, consistent
+ with other git subcommands.
--refs::
Do not show peeled tags or pseudorefs like `HEAD` in the output.
diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
index 373cfa2264..92e4ba6a2f 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
@@ -126,6 +126,11 @@ usage: git describe [<options>] <commit-ish>*
--long always use long format
--abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
---------------------------------------------
++
+Note that some subcommand (e.g. `git grep`) may behave differently
+when there are things on the command line other than `-h`, but `git
+subcmd -h` without anything else on the command line is meant to
+consistently give the usage.
--help-all::
Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
