Re: git-rm isn't the inverse action of git-add

[Christian Jaeger <christian@jaeger.mine.nu>]

Yann Dirson wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 08:09:37PM +0200, Christian Jaeger wrote:
>   
>> Why so complicated? Why not just make git-rm without options behave like
>> cg-rm? (Or at the very least, I'd change the hint to say "try -f --cached".)
>>     
>
> It is probably a matter of taste.  Personally, I am really upset by
> this behaviour that cvs, cogito, stgit and others share, which forces
> me to issue 2 commands to really delete a file from version control
> and from the filesystem.
>   

It doesn't force you to issue 2 commands: the -f option to cg-rm unlinks
the file for you. So you only have to type an additional "-f".

Yes it's probably (partly) a matter of taste: in my bash startup files I
have mv aliased to mv -i and rm to rm -i, so that it asks me whether I'm
sure to delete or overwrite a file. If I know in advance that I'm sure,
I just type "rm -f $file", which then expands to "rm -i -f $file" where
the -f overrides the -i. cg-rm -f just fits very well into this scheme
(the only difference being that "cg-rm $file" doesn't explicitely ask me
whether I also want the file to be unlinked). (BTW note that usually for
removing a file I use a "trash" (or shorter alias "tra") command, which
moves it to a trash can instead of deleting; so I use "tra $file" by
default, and only for big files or when I'm sure I immediately want to
delete them, I use rm, and then if the paths are clear I add the -f
flag, if not (like globbing involved), I don't add the -f and thus am
asked for confirmation.)

If I could alias the git-rm command so that the default action is the
reverse of git-add and adding an -f flag removes it from disk, that
would be fine for me.

> Do you really need to undo an add more often than you need to remove a
> file from version-control ?  It may be worth, however, to make things
> easier.  Maybe "git add --undo foo" would be a solution ?

This doesn't sound very intuitive to me (and I couldn't fix it with an
alias).

I don't per se require undo actions. I just don't understand why git-rm
refuses to remove the file from the index, even if I didn't commit it.
The index is just an intermediate record of the changes in my
understandings, and the rm action would also be intermediate until it's
being committed. And a non-committed action being deleted shouldn't need
a special confirmation from me, especially not one which is consisting
of a combination of two flags (of which one is a destructive one).

Christian.