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-rw-r--r--Documentation/gitcli.txt20
1 files changed, 14 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
index f734f97..3e72a5d 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
@@ -25,22 +25,22 @@ arguments. Here are the rules:
are paths.
* When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path,
- they can be disambiguated by placing `\--` between them.
- E.g. `git diff \-- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work
+ they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them.
+ E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work
tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index
and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference
between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say
- `git diff HEAD \--` to ask for the latter.
+ `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter.
- * Without disambiguating `\--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
+ * Without disambiguating `--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a
file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and
- you have to say either `git diff HEAD \--` or `git diff \-- HEAD` to
+ you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to
disambiguate.
When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is
a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing
-disambiguating `\--` at appropriate places.
+disambiguating `--` at appropriate places.
Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
scripting git:
@@ -62,6 +62,14 @@ scripting git:
`git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work
if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree.
+ * many commands allow a long option "--option" to be abbreviated
+ only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option
+ whose name begins with "opt", you may be able to spell "--opt" to
+ invoke the "--option" flag), but you should fully spell them out
+ when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a
+ new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. "--optimize",
+ to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique.
+
ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
----------------------