Re: [PATCH 1/3] format-patch: refactor output selection

[Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>]

On Wed, Nov 4, 2020 at 8:25 AM Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
> The --stdout and --output-directory options are mutually exclusive, but
> it's hard to tell from reading the code. We have three separate
> conditionals that check for use_stdout, and it's only after we've set up
> the output_directory fully that we check whether the user also specified
> --stdout.
>
> Instead, let's check the exclusion explicitly first, then have a single
> conditional that handles stdout versus an output directory. This is
> slightly easier to follow now, and also will keep things sane when we
> add another output mode in a future patch.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
> ---
> diff --git a/builtin/log.c b/builtin/log.c
> @@ -1942,20 +1942,20 @@ int cmd_format_patch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
> +       if (use_stdout + !!output_directory > 1)
> +               die(_("specify only one of --stdout, --output, and --output-directory"));

Is mention of --output intentional here? The commit message only talks
about --stdout and --output-directory.

It's subjective, but "mutually exclusive" sounds a bit more consistent
with other similar error messages elsewhere:

    --stdout, --output, and --output-directory are mutually exclusive