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From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] gitcli: contrast wildcard given to shell and to git
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:54:00 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1347306840-14007-2-git-send-email-gitster@pobox.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1347306840-14007-1-git-send-email-gitster@pobox.com>

People who are not used to working with shell may intellectually
understand how the command line argument is massaged by the shell
but still have a hard time visualizing the difference between
letting the shell expand fileglobs and having Git see the fileglob
to use as a pathspec.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/gitcli.txt | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
index c4edf04..00b8403 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
@@ -42,6 +42,23 @@ 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.
 
+ * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect
+   them from getting globbed by the shell.  These two mean different
+   things:
++
+--------------------------------
+$ git checkout -- *.c
+$ git checkout -- \*.c
+--------------------------------
++
+The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking
+the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version
+in the index.  The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking
+the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your
+working tree.  After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_
+see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter
+you will.
+
 Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
 scripting git:
 
-- 
1.7.12.322.g2c7d289

  reply	other threads:[~2012-09-10 19:54 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 36+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2012-09-03 13:42 checkout extra files Angelo Borsotti
2012-09-03 13:55 ` Carlos Martín Nieto
     [not found]   ` <CAB9Jk9AkFW-fAqOZuhCMgMBdEZwDpe5ZG9Dkse=Wz_x9LvJEPw@mail.gmail.com>
2012-09-03 14:47     ` Carlos Martín Nieto
     [not found]       ` <CAB9Jk9BjO+HdxhaGxEyaDoXgGisi0QpuVvsx3dZUnJV1VoKN1g@mail.gmail.com>
2012-09-04  1:57         ` Carlos Martín Nieto
2012-09-03 13:59 ` Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy
2012-09-03 19:36   ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04  1:49     ` Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy
2012-09-04  2:55       ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04  7:15         ` Angelo Borsotti
2012-09-04  8:53           ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04 14:30           ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04 16:15             ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-07 20:49               ` Junio C Hamano
     [not found]                 ` <CAB9Jk9BtZzgi32kxVTbGC7eAjFG41bdae=MaK==sKq=9ohf8_w@mail.gmail.com>
2012-09-08 18:54                   ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-10  0:24                     ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-08 20:40                 ` Philip Oakley
2012-09-09  3:31                   ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-09 13:48                     ` Matthieu Moy
2012-09-09 18:23                       ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-09 23:25                         ` Philip Oakley
2012-09-10 16:19                 ` Jeff King
2012-09-10 17:09                   ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-10 17:19                     ` Jeff King
2012-09-10 19:35                       ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-10 19:53                         ` [PATCH 1/2] gitcli: formatting fix Junio C Hamano
2012-09-10 19:54                           ` Junio C Hamano [this message]
2012-09-10 20:11                         ` checkout extra files Jeff King
2012-09-10 20:34                           ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04 10:14         ` Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy
     [not found]           ` <CAB9Jk9CNYr6LfWvyVqXvHjh7dzhUAuzkufqO9YMeOXg08D2cJw@mail.gmail.com>
     [not found]             ` <CACsJy8AUYigHVKjzE-0NT0hnOrQWdufN+COmkk=2Q8L1Rimytw@mail.gmail.com>
2012-09-04 13:24               ` Angelo Borsotti
2012-09-04 16:49                 ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04 19:29                   ` Angelo Borsotti
2012-09-04 20:44                     ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04 22:53                       ` Philip Oakley
2012-09-04 23:31                         ` Junio C Hamano
2012-09-04 15:31           ` Junio C Hamano

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