Re: [PATCH v1 1/4] refs: avoid "too many arguments"

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

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On Mon, Aug 05, 2024 at 05:35:36PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> diff --git a/t/t1460-refs-migrate.sh b/t/t1460-refs-migrate.sh
> index f7c0783d30..b32e740001 100755
> --- a/t/t1460-refs-migrate.sh
> +++ b/t/t1460-refs-migrate.sh
> @@ -31,9 +31,10 @@ test_expect_success "superfluous arguments" '
>  	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
>  	git init repo &&
>  	test_must_fail git -C repo refs migrate foo 2>err &&
> -	cat >expect <<-EOF &&
> -	usage: too many arguments
> -	EOF
> +	{
> +		printf "fatal: unknown argument: ${SQ}foo${SQ}\n\n" &&
> +		( git -C repo refs migrate -h || : )
> +	} >expect &&

I always have to wonder how helpful it really is to print the usage
information in such a context. I feel that it is too distracting because
in many cases, we end up printing dozens of lines of options that drown
out the single line of information that the user actually cares for,
namely why the command has failed.

In this case here it is somewhat manageable, because only 4/5th of the
output are unnecessary noise. But the picture changes as commands grow
more options over time, making the output less and less usable.

So while I think that it is a big improvement to explicitly point out
the unknown argument, I think it is step backwards to also print the
usage info.

Patrick

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