Re: [PATCH] git-init: treat option `--bare'

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Luciano Rocha <luciano@eurotux.com> writes:

> Currently, passing the `--bare' option to git-init proper doesn't work, and
> gives no indication that `git --bare init' would work instead:
>
> $ git init --bare
> usage: git-init [-q | --quiet] [--template=<template-directory>] [--shared]
>
> Treat the `--bare' option internally in builtin-init-db.
>
> Also, fix the usage string, synchronising it with the synopsis in the
> documentation.
>
> Signed-off-by: Luciano Rocha <strange@nsk.pt>

It could be argued that this kind of "special casing to help common
mistake situation" would in the long run hamper the new users in
understanding what --bare means, because one who uses "git init --bare"
will not realize that --bare is an option to "git" potty in general and
can be given when invoking other git commands.  On the other hand, many
commands do work sensibly inside a bare repository already, and "init" is
truly special in that it cannot inspect the surroundings to guess if the
user wants to create a bare repository or one with a work-tree because
there isn't a repository yet.  In that sense, probably people not learning
"git --bare" is not such a loss after all.

In general, I am not particularly fond of this kind of special casing, but
initializing a bare repository would be a common enough operation that I
personally think it is probably Ok to take this as an exception.

Opinions?  Breakages?