Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] help: redirect to aliased commands for "git cmd --help"

From: Rasmus Villemoes <rv@rasmusvillemoes.dk>
To: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>,
	Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com>, Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] help: redirect to aliased commands for "git cmd --help"
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2018 12:22:32 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5e79944d-e82f-f4c1-00ec-445121769f42@rasmusvillemoes.dk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <xmqq8t3czty3.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

On 2018-10-05 10:19, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Rasmus Villemoes <rv@rasmusvillemoes.dk> writes:
> 
>>
>> I believe that printing the "is aliased to" message also in case (2) has
>> value: Depending on pager setup, or if the user has help.format=web, the
>> message is still present immediately above the prompt when the user
>> quits the pager/returns to the terminal. That serves as an explanation
>> for why one was redirected to "man git-cherry-pick" from "git cp
>> --help", and if cp is actually 'cherry-pick -n', it reminds the user
>> that using cp has some flag implicitly set before firing off the next
>> command.
>>
>> It also provides some useful info in case we end up erroring out, either
>> in the "bad alias string" check, or in the "No manual entry for gitbar"
>> case.
> 
> These two paragraphs were misleading, because they sounded as if you
> were lamenting that you were somehow forbidden from doing so even
> though you believe doing it is the right thing.
> 
> But that is not what is happening.  I think we should update the (2)
> above to mention what you actually do in the code, perhaps like so:

Yes, what I wrote was probably better placed below ---.

>         and hopefully remain visible when help.format=web is used,
>        "git bar --help" errors out, or the manpage of "git bar" is
>        short enough. It may not help if the help shows manpage on

or, as in my case, the pager does not clear the terminal. I even think
that's the default behaviour (due to X in $LESS) - at least, I don't
have any magic in the environment or .gitconfig to achieve this. So it's
not visible while the man page is shown in the pager, but upon exit from
the pager.

> It also is strange to count from (0); if the patchset is rerolled
> again, I'd prefer to see these start counting from (1), in which
> case this item will become (3).

If you prefer, I can send a v4.

Rasmus