From: "Jean-Noël AVILA" <jn.avila@free.fr>
To: git@vger.kernel.org, "D. Ben Knoble" <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com>
Cc: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>,
"D. Ben Knoble" <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 2/4] doc: git-reset: clarify intro
Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2026 14:49:45 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <5953760.DvuYhMxLoT@piment-oiseau> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <f90be8559f7d1d8362077a6f888687ee8be063b4.1767307382.git.ben.knoble+github@gmail.com>
Le jeudi 1 janvier 2026, 23:43:57 heure normale d’Europe centrale D. Ben
Knoble a écrit :
> From: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
>
> From user feedback, there were several points of confusion:
>
> - What "tree-ish", "entries", "working tree", "HEAD", and "index" mean
> ("I have no clue what the index is", "I've been using git for 20 years
> and still don't know what a tree-ish is"). Avoid using these terms
> where it makes sense.
> - What "optionally modifying index and working tree to match" means
> ("to match what?" "optionally based on what?")
> Remove this from the intro, we can say it later when giving more
> details.
> - One user suggested that "The <tree-ish>/<commit> defaults to HEAD
> in all forms." should be repeated later on, since it's easy to miss.
> Instead say that HEAD is the default in each case later.
>
> Another issue is that `git reset` consistently describes the action
> it does as "Reset ...", commands should not use their name to describe
> themselves, and that the word "mode" is used to mean several different
> things on this page.
>
> Address these by being more clear about two use cases for `git reset`
> ("to undo operations" and "to update staged files"), and explaining what
> the conditions are for each case instead of forcing the user to figure
> out the pattern is in first form vs the other 3 forms.
>
> Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
> Signed-off-by: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com>
> ---
> Documentation/git-reset.adoc | 13 ++++++++-----
> 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-reset.adoc b/Documentation/git-reset.adoc
> index 9843682e81..71e8f52430 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-reset.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-reset.adoc
> @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ git-reset(1)
There are `HEAD` that passed through the style checks.
>
> NAME
> ----
> -git-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state
> +git-reset - Set HEAD or the index to a known state
>
Here
> SYNOPSIS
> --------
> @@ -15,10 +15,13 @@ git reset (--patch | -p) [<tree-ish>] [--]
[<pathspec>...]
>
> DESCRIPTION
> -----------
> -In the first form, set the current branch head (`HEAD`) to _<commit>_,
> -optionally modifying index and working tree to match.
> -The _<tree-ish>_/_<commit>_ defaults to `HEAD` in all forms.
> -In the last three forms, copy entries from _<tree-ish>_ to the index.
> +`git reset` does either of the following:
> +
> +1. `git reset [<mode>] <commit>` changes which commit HEAD points to. This
makes
And here.
> + it possible to undo various Git operations, for example commit, merge,
> + rebase, and pull.
> +2. When you specify files or directories or pass `--patch`, `git reset`
updates
> + the staged version of the specified files.
>
> `git reset [<mode>] [<commit>]`::
> This form resets the current branch head to _<commit>_ and
Thanks
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-02 13:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-10-17 20:05 [PATCH 0/4] doc: git-reset: clarify DESCRIPTION section Julia Evans via GitGitGadget
2025-10-17 20:05 ` [PATCH 1/4] doc: git-reset: reorder the forms Julia Evans via GitGitGadget
2025-10-17 22:20 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-10-20 19:03 ` Julia Evans
2025-10-17 20:05 ` [PATCH 2/4] doc: git-reset: clarify intro Julia Evans via GitGitGadget
2025-10-17 22:32 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-10-20 19:29 ` Julia Evans
2025-10-20 20:00 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-10-20 20:30 ` D. Ben Knoble
2025-12-03 18:15 ` Julia Evans
2025-10-17 20:05 ` [PATCH 3/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset [mode]` Julia Evans via GitGitGadget
2025-10-18 4:53 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-10-20 20:23 ` Julia Evans
2025-10-20 20:33 ` D. Ben Knoble
2025-10-20 20:44 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-10-17 20:05 ` [PATCH 4/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset <pathspec>` Julia Evans via GitGitGadget
2025-10-17 23:25 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-10-18 14:06 ` Ben Knoble
2025-10-18 16:17 ` Junio C Hamano
2025-12-19 0:23 ` [PATCH v2 0/4] doc: git-reset: clarify DESCRIPTION section D. Ben Knoble
2025-12-19 0:23 ` [PATCH v2 1/4] doc: git-reset: reorder the forms D. Ben Knoble
2025-12-19 0:23 ` [PATCH v2 2/4] doc: git-reset: clarify intro D. Ben Knoble
2025-12-19 0:23 ` [PATCH v2 3/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset [mode]` D. Ben Knoble
2025-12-19 0:23 ` [PATCH v2 4/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset <pathspec>` D. Ben Knoble
2025-12-30 5:23 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-01-01 22:32 ` D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-01 22:43 ` [PATCH v3 0/4] doc: git-reset: clarify DESCRIPTION section D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-01 22:43 ` [PATCH v3 1/4] doc: git-reset: reorder the forms D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-01 22:43 ` [PATCH v3 2/4] doc: git-reset: clarify intro D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-02 13:49 ` Jean-Noël AVILA [this message]
2026-01-01 22:43 ` [PATCH v3 3/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset [mode]` D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-02 14:28 ` Jean-Noël AVILA
2026-01-01 22:43 ` [PATCH v3 4/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset <pathspec>` D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-05 21:48 ` [PATCH v4 0/4] doc: git-reset: clarify DESCRIPTION section D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-05 21:48 ` [PATCH v4 1/4] doc: git-reset: reorder the forms D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-05 21:48 ` [PATCH v4 2/4] doc: git-reset: clarify intro D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-05 21:48 ` [PATCH v4 3/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset [mode]` D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-05 21:48 ` [PATCH v4 4/4] doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset <pathspec>` D. Ben Knoble
2026-01-07 3:55 ` [PATCH v4 0/4] doc: git-reset: clarify DESCRIPTION section Junio C Hamano
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