Tim Hockin <thockin@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: > ``` > $ git rev-parse unknown-tag > unknown-tag > fatal: ambiguous argument 'unknown-tag': unknown revision or path not > in the working tree. > Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this: > 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]' > ``` > > OK > > ``` > $ git rev-parse unknown-tag -- > fatal: bad revision 'unknown-tag' > ``` > > Much nicer error. But: > > ``` > $ git rev-parse HEAD -- > 113a928239196d0d9f70671517ce917071ceecf6 > -- > ``` > > That's not very nice. Why is "--" treated as an arg? > > ``` > $ git rev-parse HEAD > 113a928239196d0d9f70671517ce917071ceecf6 > ``` > > Looking at rev-parse code it SEEMS to be intentional, but I can't > comprehend why. Because the first function of "rev-parse" (among many others) is to be a helper usable in scripted Porcelains to "parse" command line arguments, shifting them into revs and "files". Without options like --revs-only, --no-revs, --flags etc., it dumps everything, while translating "revs" into raw object names, to its output. "--" is a valid command line option for whatever scripted Porcelain you'd be writing using "rev-parse" to help parsing its command line arguments. So everything we see above is very much working as designed.
