[PATCH] reset.txt: update the title line to cover all use cases

[PATCH] reset.txt: update the title line to cover all use cases

[Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy]

git-reset could be used in three different ways:

- move HEAD to somewhere, optionally (not) update worktree/index
- "move" HEAD to HEAD, mainly to update worktree/index
- just update the index from some tree-ish

The second case is frankly a (neat) corner case of the first one. But it
makes it impossible for me to summarize git-reset in one line. Without
it at least I could write "reset HEAD or the index".

And even "reset all the things" is not correct because reseting worktree
selectively is the job of git-checkout, not git-reset. Sigh.

This patch is not meant to be taken seriously. It's to raise the issue
with git-reset documentation, and maybe someone could come up with a
better summary line for git-reset. Because the current line only covers
the first (original) case.

PS. We also need to update git-reset to mentino about its ability to
clear branch state.
---
 Documentation/git-reset.txt | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-reset.txt b/Documentation/git-reset.txt
index 26e746c53f..e12d8edee6 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-reset.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-reset.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ git-reset(1)
 
 NAME
 ----
-git-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state
+git-reset - Reset "something"
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-- 
2.21.0.854.ge34a79f761

Re: [PATCH] reset.txt: update the title line to cover all use cases

[Junio C Hamano]

Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy  <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:

> git-reset could be used in three different ways:
>
> - move HEAD to somewhere, optionally (not) update worktree/index
> - "move" HEAD to HEAD, mainly to update worktree/index
> - just update the index from some tree-ish
>
> The second case is frankly a (neat) corner case of the first one. But it
> makes it impossible for me to summarize git-reset in one line. Without
> it at least I could write "reset HEAD or the index".
>
> And even "reset all the things" is not correct because reseting worktree
> selectively is the job of git-checkout, not git-reset. Sigh.

I am not so sure if the current one is too bad.  The primary action
of the command is to reset the current HEAD to point at a specified
commit, and everything else it does is to make things consistent (in
other words, in line with having the HEAD at the given commit) with
respect to different requirements.  The "soft" reset wants to keep
the index and the working tree intact, the "merge" reset wants to
undo what a mergy operation would have done to the index and the
working tree if it started from a clean state, etc.  And "reset the
HEAD" is quite approiprate for a single line summary of what the
command does.  It perfectly is fine as long as the differences
brought in by having various "modes" are sufficiently described, I
would think.

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-reset.txt b/Documentation/git-reset.txt
> index 26e746c53f..e12d8edee6 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-reset.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-reset.txt
> @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ git-reset(1)
>  
>  NAME
>  ----
> -git-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state
> +git-reset - Reset "something"
>  
>  SYNOPSIS
>  --------