Re: [PATCH] revision: introduce --exclude=<glob> to tame wildcards

[Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>]

On 09/02/2013 10:11 PM, Johannes Sixt wrote:
> Am 31.08.2013 01:55, schrieb Junio C Hamano:
>> People often find "git log --branches" etc. that includes _all_
>> branches is cumbersome to use when they want to grab most but except
>> some.  The same applies to --tags, --all and --glob.
>>
>> Teach the revision machinery to remember patterns, and then upon the
>> next such a globbing option, exclude those that match the pattern.
>>
>> With this, I can view only my integration branches (e.g. maint,
>> master, etc.) without topic branches, which are named after two
>> letters from primary authors' names, slash and topic name.
>>
>>     git rev-list --no-walk --exclude=??/* --branches |
>>     git name-rev --refs refs/heads/* --stdin
>>
>> This one shows things reachable from local and remote branches that
>> have not been merged to the integration branches.
>>
>>     git log --remotes --branches --not --exclude=??/* --branches
>>
>> It may be a bit rough around the edges, in that the pattern to give
>> the exclude option depends on what globbing option follows.  In
>> these examples, the pattern "??/*" is used, not "refs/heads/??/*",
>> because the globbing option that follows the -"-exclude=<pattern>"
>> is "--branches".  As each use of globbing option resets previously
>> set "--exclude", this may not be such a bad thing, though.
> 
> I argued "--except should trump everything" earlier, but the case
> involving --not
> 
>   --branches --except maint --not master
> 
> to mean the same as
> 
>   --branches --except maint master
> 
> just does not make sense.
> 
> An alternative would be that --not would divide the command line
> arguments into ranges within which one --except would subtract
> subsequent refs from earlier globbing arguments in the same range.
> That's not simpler to explain than your current proposal.
> 
> So I like the relative simplicity of this approach. Here is a bit of
> documentation.
> 
> --- 8< ---
> Subject: [PATCH] document --exclude option
> 
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
> ---
>  Documentation/rev-list-options.txt | 15 +++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
> index 5bdfb42..650c252 100644
> --- a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
> @@ -174,6 +174,21 @@ parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
>  	is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
>  	or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
>  
> +--exclude=<glob-pattern>::
> +
> +	Do not include refs matching '<glob-pattern>' that the next `--all`,
> +	`--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or `--glob` would otherwise
> +	consider. Repetitions of this option accumulate exclusion patterns
> +	up to the next `--all`, `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or
> +	`--glob` option (other options or arguments do not clear
> +	accumlated patterns).
> ++
> +The patterns given should not begin with `refs/heads`, `refs/tags`, or
> +`refs/remotes` when applied to `--branches`, `--tags`, or `--remotes`,
> +restrictively, and they must begin with `refs/` when applied to `--glob`

s/restrictively/respectively/

> +or `--all`. If a trailing '/{asterisk}' is intended, it must be given
> +explicitly.
> +
>  --ignore-missing::
>  
>  	Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
> 

It seems to me that this is growing into a language for expressing
boolean expressions without allowing terms to be combined in the full
generality that, say, a real programming language would allow.  Maybe
instead of trying to decide on the "perfect" grouping and precedence
rules, it would be clearer to allow the user to specify them.  I almost
hate to suggest it, but have you considered making the expression
"syntax" a little bit more flexible by allowing parentheses, à la
find(1), or something analogous?:

'(' --tags --except='v[0-9]*' ')' -o '(' --branches --except='mh/*' ')'

Michael

-- 
Michael Haggerty
mhagger@alum.mit.edu
http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/