From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: [Census] So who uses git? Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:21:52 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: References: <46a038f90601251810m1086d353ne8c7147edee4962a@mail.gmail.com> <46a038f90601272133o53438987ka6b97c21d0cdf921@mail.gmail.com> <1138446030.9919.112.camel@evo.keithp.com> <7vzmlgt5zt.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> <20060130185822.GA24487@hpsvcnb.fc.hp.com> <1138734110.18852.26.camel@evo.keithp.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: Johannes Schindelin , Carl Baldwin , Junio C Hamano , Martin Langhoff , Git Mailing List X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Tue Jan 31 20:25:32 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F4182-00043Q-LW for gcvg-git@gmane.org; Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:25:27 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751401AbWAaTZX (ORCPT ); Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:25:23 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751402AbWAaTZX (ORCPT ); Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:25:23 -0500 Received: from smtp.osdl.org ([65.172.181.4]:47325 "EHLO smtp.osdl.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751401AbWAaTZW (ORCPT ); Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:25:22 -0500 Received: from shell0.pdx.osdl.net (fw.osdl.org [65.172.181.6]) by smtp.osdl.org (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k0VJLsDZ000339 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO); Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:21:54 -0800 Received: from localhost (shell0.pdx.osdl.net [10.9.0.31]) by shell0.pdx.osdl.net (8.13.1/8.11.6) with ESMTP id k0VJLqaS026305; Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:21:53 -0800 To: Keith Packard In-Reply-To: <1138734110.18852.26.camel@evo.keithp.com> X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0 required=5 tests= X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63-osdl_revision__1.67__ X-MIMEDefang-Filter: osdl$Revision: 1.129 $ X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.36 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Keith Packard wrote: > On Tue, 2006-01-31 at 09:30 -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > - ignore it. Never _ever_ use git-update-index directly, and don't tell > > people about use individual filenames to git-commit. Maybe even add > > "-a" by default to the git-commit flags as a special installation > > addition. > > As a newly initiated user, this would have been a more gentle > introduction to the system. But, it would be hard to make it entirely > invisible given the current interfaces. I'm not sure if obscuring the > presense of the index is a great plan; it's already hard enough to > figure out how it works. Now, I do agree. I don't actually like hiding the index too much. Understanding the index is _invaluable_ whenever you're doing a merge with conflicts, and understanding what tools are available to you to resolve those conflicts. The index is also obviously very important when you do a partial commit, and it's something I do end up doing quite often. Again, maybe that's not something that a new git user should be encouraged to ever do, but it's a huge convenience feature for power-users. Understanding the index also allows people to understand certain performance-characteristics of git, and explains how "git add" (and remove, if we had one) actually works independently of the commit. So I'm actually of the "revel in the index" camp (as could probably be guessed by the original tutorial). My personal suggestion would be to introduce git "gently" by ignoring it, but by the time a person actually _works_ on a project (as opposed to just going through a tutorial or following another persons project), he/she should probably have been introduced to the index in order to understand what happens and to use its power. (In particular, the difference between "git diff" and "git diff HEAD" is an important one to understand eventually). Linus