[RFC/PATCH 0/9] commit: more focused advice in the no-changes-staged case

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

When last seen[1], this series was a single patch in very rough form,
but there have been almost no functional changes since then.

The patches suppress most output when “git commit” is run without
stages changed.  So instead of

	$ git commit
	# On branch master
	# Changed but not updated:
	#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
	#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
	#
	#	modified:   dir1/modified
	#
	# Untracked files:
	#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
	#
	#	actual
	#	dir1/untracked
	#	dir2/modified
	#	dir2/untracked
	#	expect
	#	output
	#	untracked
	no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

which may cause a newcomer to panic, you get

	$ git commit
	no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

which would just cause her to scratch her head or say “oh, right!”
instead.  Hopefully these patches will at least provide a reminder to
improve the various "no changes" advice messages.

Ideas for future work:

 - add some tests
 - give the full traditional output if -a or any paths were passed on
   the command line.

Most of the patches are code clarity improvements which is not
strictly related to this topic.

Patch 6 cleans up the most obvious script to add tests for this in,
though I have not added any tests to it.

Patch 8 changes commit --dry-run output in a more modest way, to
print the same advice Jeff added to commit proper last month.  I
suspect this is a good change, but input from people who script
around commit --dry-run would be welcome.

Patch 9 is the advertised patch.  It should be self-explanatory.

Thoughts?

Jonathan Nieder (9):
  wt-status: split wt_status_print into digestible pieces
  wt-status: give submodule summary printing its own function
  commit: split off a function to fetch the default log message
  commit: encapsulate commit -s handling in its own function
  commit: split off the piece that writes status
  t7508 (status): modernize style
  commit: give empty-commit avoidance code its own function
  commit --dry-run: give advice on empty amend
  commit: suppress status summary when no changes staged

 builtin/commit.c  |  328 ++++++++------
 t/t7508-status.sh | 1380 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------
 wt-status.c       |  103 +++--
 wt-status.h       |    1 +
 4 files changed, 989 insertions(+), 823 deletions(-)

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.bugs.general/698001/focus=145541