[PATCH] cat-file: add missing [=<format>] to usage/synopsis

[PATCH] cat-file: add missing [=<format>] to usage/synopsis

[Christian Couder]

When displaying cat-file usage, the fact that a <format> can
be specified is only visible when lookling at the --batch and
--batch-check options which are shown like this:

    --batch[=<format>]    show info and content of objects fed from the standard input
    --batch-check[=<format>]
                          show info about objects fed from the standard input

It seems more coherent and improves discovery to also show it
on the usage line.

In the documentation the DESCRIPTION tells us that "The output
format can be overridden using the optional <format> argument",
but we can't see the <format> argument in the SYNOPSIS above
the description which is confusing.

Signed-off-by: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
---
 Documentation/git-cat-file.txt | 2 +-
 builtin/cat-file.c             | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt b/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
index 8eca671b82..8e192d87db 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv | --filters ) [--path=<path>] <object>
-'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [ --textconv | --filters ] [--follow-symlinks]
+'git cat-file' (--batch[=<format>] | --batch-check[=<format>]) [ --textconv | --filters ] [--follow-symlinks]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/builtin/cat-file.c b/builtin/cat-file.c
index ae18e20a7c..5ebf13359e 100644
--- a/builtin/cat-file.c
+++ b/builtin/cat-file.c
@@ -596,7 +596,7 @@ static int batch_objects(struct batch_options *opt)
 
 static const char * const cat_file_usage[] = {
 	N_("git cat-file (-t [--allow-unknown-type] | -s [--allow-unknown-type] | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv | --filters) [--path=<path>] <object>"),
-	N_("git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check) [--follow-symlinks] [--textconv | --filters]"),
+	N_("git cat-file (--batch[=<format>] | --batch-check[=<format>]) [--follow-symlinks] [--textconv | --filters]"),
 	NULL
 };
 
-- 
2.27.0.221.ga08a83db2b.dirty

Re: [PATCH] cat-file: add missing [=<format>] to usage/synopsis

[Jeff King]

On Wed, Jul 01, 2020 at 12:16:18PM +0200, Christian Couder wrote:

> When displaying cat-file usage, the fact that a <format> can
> be specified is only visible when lookling at the --batch and
> --batch-check options which are shown like this:
> 
>     --batch[=<format>]    show info and content of objects fed from the standard input
>     --batch-check[=<format>]
>                           show info about objects fed from the standard input
> 
> It seems more coherent and improves discovery to also show it
> on the usage line.
> 
> In the documentation the DESCRIPTION tells us that "The output
> format can be overridden using the optional <format> argument",
> but we can't see the <format> argument in the SYNOPSIS above
> the description which is confusing.

Thanks, this makes sense and the patch looks good to me (it does make
the line very long, but the one above is much longer anyway).

-Peff