From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: [RFC] 'git cat-file' needs a better design on its option interface Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:23:52 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: References: <3a3680030909240804w1399ed7fhd6367300544f34f@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: Junio C Hamano , git@vger.kernel.org To: Li Hong X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Sep 24 19:24:03 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Mqs30-0002BO-S1 for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:24:03 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752144AbZIXRXw (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:23:52 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751873AbZIXRXw (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:23:52 -0400 Received: from smtp1.linux-foundation.org ([140.211.169.13]:43353 "EHLO smtp1.linux-foundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751851AbZIXRXw (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:23:52 -0400 Received: from imap1.linux-foundation.org (imap1.linux-foundation.org [140.211.169.55]) by smtp1.linux-foundation.org (8.14.2/8.13.5/Debian-3ubuntu1.1) with ESMTP id n8OHNq05003713 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:23:53 -0700 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by imap1.linux-foundation.org (8.13.5.20060308/8.13.5/Debian-3ubuntu1.1) with ESMTP id n8OHNqps030578; Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:23:52 -0700 X-X-Sender: torvalds@localhost.localdomain In-Reply-To: <3a3680030909240804w1399ed7fhd6367300544f34f@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.01 (LFD 1184 2008-12-16) X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.961 required=5 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,OSDL_HEADER_SUBJECT_BRACKETED X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.4-osdl_revision__1.47__ X-MIMEDefang-Filter: lf$Revision: 1.188 $ X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.63 on 140.211.169.13 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Thu, 24 Sep 2009, Li Hong wrote: > > When using 'git cat-file' recently, I find its option interface is somewhat > inconvenient or mistakenly-designed. You likely shouldn't use 'cat-file' at all. Have you looked at 'git show'? That's the command meant for human beings. 'git cat-file' is really really low-level plumbing. Humans should generally never use it. It's one of the original git commands (it was literally in the original git commit), and it does some really low-level stuff that is good for scripting but not for any normal use. Linus