[PATCH v4 02/11] doc: interpret-trailers: replace “lines” with “metadata”

[kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com]

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>

We removed the initial comparison to email headers in the previous
commit. Now the introduction paragraph just says “trailer lines”, and
the only hint that this is metadata/structured information is the
“otherwise free-form” phrase.

Let’s replace “lines” with “metadata” since that is their purpose.
This also makes the introduction more consistent with how I chose
to define trailers in the glossary:[1] “Key-value metadata”. (We will
introduce “key–value” in the upcoming commit “explain the format after
the intro”.)

† 1: 68e3c69e (Documentation/glossary: describe "trailer", 2024-11-17)

Let’s not emphasize “trailer” here since we are going to define the term
in the upcoming commit “explain the format after the intro”.

Let’s call it “trailer metadata” rather than “trailers metadata”.
At first it seemed better to use the latter:

1. We’re introducing the jargon, and the format is often discussed as
   plural “trailers”, with its constituent parts being singular
   “trailer”
2. What this replaces uses “trailer”, but it rescues the plural mood
   with “lines”
3. This is very soon going to go into the constituent parts, including
   each trailer, so we’re contrasting the concept name (trailers) with
   its parts

But:

1. The former reads better (most important)
2. “Trailer *metadata*” suggests plurality, similar to “trailer *lines*”

Helped-by: Matt Hunter <m@lfurio.us>
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
---

Notes (series):
    v4:
    • s/trailers metadata/trailer metadata/ since it reads better (and
      see commit message for details)
    
      🔗 https://lore.kernel.org/git/DJ5W2I8UYXAA.3O4JQUHFMKP5X@lfurio.us/
    • Msg: Add a paragraph to explain why we remove the emphasis from
      “trailer”. In the previous version we replaced “trailer” with
      “trailers”, so we didn’t need to explain it then.
    
    ---
    
    v2: [new]

 Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
index 1878848ad2a..c8950d3babc 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ git interpret-trailers [--in-place] [--trim-empty]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-Add or parse _trailer_ lines at the end of the otherwise
+Add or parse trailer metadata at the end of the otherwise
 free-form part of a commit message. For example, in the following commit
 message
 
-- 
2.54.0.22.g9e26862b904