[PATCH] Modifies the default git help message to be grouped by topic

[PATCH] Modifies the default git help message to be grouped by topic

[Scott Chacon]

It's difficult to process 21 commands (which is what is output
by default for git when no command is given).  They have been
re-grouped into 4 groups of 5-6 commands each, which is clearer
and easier for new users to process.

Also removes the common-cmd.h generation process, including
parts of the Makefile and the generate-cmdlist.sh file.

As discussed at the GitTogether.

Signed-off-by: Scott Chacon <schacon@gmail.com>
---

This is a followup patch based on Junio and Jeffs feedback. 
It also should apply cleanly which the other one would no 
longer to, since it was from the GitTogether and then resent.

 Makefile            |   13 ++++---------
 builtin-help.c      |   40 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 generate-cmdlist.sh |   24 ------------------------
 3 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 47 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100755 generate-cmdlist.sh

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 649cfb8..9a564cb 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1117,7 +1117,7 @@ shell_compatibility_test: please_set_SHELL_PATH_to_a_more_modern_shell
 strip: $(PROGRAMS) git$X
 	$(STRIP) $(STRIP_OPTS) $(PROGRAMS) git$X
 
-git.o: git.c common-cmds.h GIT-CFLAGS
+git.o: git.c GIT-CFLAGS
 	$(QUIET_CC)$(CC) -DGIT_VERSION='"$(GIT_VERSION)"' \
 		$(ALL_CFLAGS) -c $(filter %.c,$^)
 
@@ -1125,7 +1125,7 @@ git$X: git.o $(BUILTIN_OBJS) $(GITLIBS)
 	$(QUIET_LINK)$(CC) $(ALL_CFLAGS) -o $@ git.o \
 		$(BUILTIN_OBJS) $(ALL_LDFLAGS) $(LIBS)
 
-builtin-help.o: builtin-help.c common-cmds.h GIT-CFLAGS
+builtin-help.o: builtin-help.c GIT-CFLAGS
 	$(QUIET_CC)$(CC) -o $*.o -c $(ALL_CFLAGS) \
 		'-DGIT_HTML_PATH="$(htmldir_SQ)"' \
 		'-DGIT_MAN_PATH="$(mandir_SQ)"' \
@@ -1137,11 +1137,6 @@ $(BUILT_INS): git$X
 	ln -s git$X $@ 2>/dev/null || \
 	cp git$X $@
 
-common-cmds.h: ./generate-cmdlist.sh command-list.txt
-
-common-cmds.h: $(wildcard Documentation/git-*.txt)
-	$(QUIET_GEN)./generate-cmdlist.sh > $@+ && mv $@+ $@
-
 $(patsubst %.sh,%,$(SCRIPT_SH)) : % : %.sh
 	$(QUIET_GEN)$(RM) $@ $@+ && \
 	sed -e '1s|#!.*/sh|#!$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)|' \
@@ -1363,7 +1358,7 @@ test-%$X: test-%.o $(GITLIBS)
 check-sha1:: test-sha1$X
 	./test-sha1.sh
 
-check: common-cmds.h
+check: 
 	if sparse; \
 	then \
 		for i in *.c; \
@@ -1498,7 +1493,7 @@ clean:
 		$(LIB_FILE) $(XDIFF_LIB)
 	$(RM) $(ALL_PROGRAMS) $(BUILT_INS) git$X
 	$(RM) $(TEST_PROGRAMS)
-	$(RM) *.spec *.pyc *.pyo */*.pyc */*.pyo common-cmds.h TAGS tags cscope*
+	$(RM) *.spec *.pyc *.pyo */*.pyc */*.pyo TAGS tags cscope*
 	$(RM) -r autom4te.cache
 	$(RM) config.log config.mak.autogen config.mak.append config.status config.cache
 	$(RM) -r $(GIT_TARNAME) .doc-tmp-dir
diff --git a/builtin-help.c b/builtin-help.c
index f076efa..537534a 100644
--- a/builtin-help.c
+++ b/builtin-help.c
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 #include "cache.h"
 #include "builtin.h"
 #include "exec_cmd.h"
-#include "common-cmds.h"
 #include "parse-options.h"
 #include "run-command.h"
 #include "help.h"
@@ -277,19 +276,32 @@ static struct cmdnames main_cmds, other_cmds;
 
 void list_common_cmds_help(void)
 {
-	int i, longest = 0;
-
-	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(common_cmds); i++) {
-		if (longest < strlen(common_cmds[i].name))
-			longest = strlen(common_cmds[i].name);
-	}
-
-	puts("The most commonly used git commands are:");
-	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(common_cmds); i++) {
-		printf("   %s   ", common_cmds[i].name);
-		mput_char(' ', longest - strlen(common_cmds[i].name));
-		puts(common_cmds[i].help);
-	}
+  puts("The most commonly used git commands are:\n\
+\n\
+Basic Commands\n\
+  init       Create an empty git repository or reinitialize an existing one\n\
+  add        Add file contents to the staging area\n\
+  status     Show the working tree and staging area status\n\
+  commit     Record changes in the staging area to the repository\n\
+\n\
+History Commands\n\
+  log        Show commit log history\n\
+  diff       Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc\n\
+  reset      Reset your staging area or working directory to a specified state\n\
+  show       Show various types of objects\n\
+\n\
+Branch Commands\n\
+  checkout   Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree\n\
+  branch     List, create, or delete branches\n\
+  merge      Join two or more development histories together\n\
+  rebase     Apply changes introduced in one branch onto another\n\
+  tag        Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG\n\
+\n\
+Remote Commands\n\
+  clone      Clone a repository into a new directory\n\
+  fetch      Download objects and refs from another repository\n\
+  pull       Fetch from and merge with another repository or a local branch\n\
+  push       Update remote refs along with associated objects");
 }
 
 static int is_git_command(const char *s)
diff --git a/generate-cmdlist.sh b/generate-cmdlist.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index a2913c2..0000000
--- a/generate-cmdlist.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-echo "/* Automatically generated by $0 */
-struct cmdname_help
-{
-    char name[16];
-    char help[80];
-};
-
-static struct cmdname_help common_cmds[] = {"
-
-sed -n -e 's/^git-\([^ 	]*\)[ 	].* common.*/\1/p' command-list.txt |
-sort |
-while read cmd
-do
-     sed -n '
-     /NAME/,/git-'"$cmd"'/H
-     ${
-            x
-            s/.*git-'"$cmd"' - \(.*\)/  {"'"$cmd"'", "\1"},/
-	    p
-     }' "Documentation/git-$cmd.txt"
-done
-echo "};"
-- 
1.6.0.8.gc9c8

Re: [PATCH] Modifies the default git help message to be grouped by topic

[Jeff King]

On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 10:05:09PM -0800, Scott Chacon wrote:

> -     sed -n '
> -     /NAME/,/git-'"$cmd"'/H
> -     ${
> -            x
> -            s/.*git-'"$cmd"' - \(.*\)/  {"'"$cmd"'", "\1"},/
> -	    p
> -     }' "Documentation/git-$cmd.txt"

Sorry to reverse direction after you resubmitted, but my earlier comment
on "this list shouldn't change frequently" didn't take into account that
the _synopsis_ might change, which is much more likely. So maybe rather
than ditching the auto-generation, it makes sense to just hardcode the
order and categorization, but pull the rest from autogeneration.

Something like the patch below (though it makes the 'common' tag in
command-list.txt somewhat redundant, so we should probably just remove
that):

diff --git a/builtin-help.c b/builtin-help.c
index f076efa..b5eafb7 100644
--- a/builtin-help.c
+++ b/builtin-help.c
@@ -275,6 +275,15 @@ static int git_help_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 
 static struct cmdnames main_cmds, other_cmds;
 
+static const char *find_cmdname_help(const char *name)
+{
+	int i;
+	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(common_cmds); i++)
+		if (!strcmp(common_cmds[i].name, name))
+			return common_cmds[i].help;
+	return "";
+}
+
 void list_common_cmds_help(void)
 {
 	int i, longest = 0;
@@ -285,11 +294,43 @@ void list_common_cmds_help(void)
 	}
 
 	puts("The most commonly used git commands are:");
-	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(common_cmds); i++) {
-		printf("   %s   ", common_cmds[i].name);
-		mput_char(' ', longest - strlen(common_cmds[i].name));
-		puts(common_cmds[i].help);
-	}
+
+#define COMMON(x) \
+do { \
+	printf("   %s   ", x); \
+	mput_char(' ', longest - strlen(x)); \
+	puts(find_cmdname_help(x)); \
+} while(0)
+
+	puts("Basic Commands");
+	COMMON("init");
+	COMMON("add");
+	COMMON("status");
+	COMMON("commit");
+	puts("");
+
+	puts("History Commands");
+	COMMON("log");
+	COMMON("diff");
+	COMMON("reset");
+	COMMON("show");
+	puts("");
+
+	puts("Branch Commands");
+	COMMON("checkout");
+	COMMON("branch");
+	COMMON("merge");
+	COMMON("rebase");
+	COMMON("tag");
+	puts("");
+
+	puts("Remote Commands");
+	COMMON("clone");
+	COMMON("fetch");
+	COMMON("pull");
+	COMMON("push");
+
+#undef COMMON
 }
 
 static int is_git_command(const char *s)

Re: [PATCH] Modifies the default git help message to be grouped by topic

[Jeff King]

On Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 12:20:25PM -0500, Jeff King wrote:

> Sorry to reverse direction after you resubmitted, but my earlier comment
> on "this list shouldn't change frequently" didn't take into account that
> the _synopsis_ might change, which is much more likely. So maybe rather
> than ditching the auto-generation, it makes sense to just hardcode the
> order and categorization, but pull the rest from autogeneration.

Note also that one could of course just use "common:basic" or something
like that in command-list.txt. But to handle arbitrary ordering, we
would have to reorder command-list as appropriate (which currently gets
sorted), or do something awful like common:basic1, common:basic2, etc. I
tried to choose the most straightforward approach that didn't involve
duplication of information.

-Peff