Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)]

Hi,
  Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even
further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type
'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier
but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you
have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general
anyway.

-- 
Regards,

Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)
FSF member#5124

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Stefan Näwe]

Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes:

> 
> Hi,
>   Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even
> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type
> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier
> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you
> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general
> anyway.

Or even '~1', '~3'.

Where's the '+1' button...?

Stefan

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Junio C Hamano]

Stefan Näwe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com> writes:

> Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes:
>> 
>> Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even
>> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type
>> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier
>> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you
>> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general
>> anyway.
>
> Or even '~1', '~3'.

"^" has a problem when used with other things (does "log ^^2
origin" mean "log HEAD^2..origin"?  Or "log HEAD^^2 origin"), so I
do not think it would never fly as an abbreviated syntax.

While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still
need to be a bit more careful when analysing the benefit of such an
abbreviation.  To shells used by many people, these mean tilde
expansion ~<N> to refer to elements on the dirstack and you need to
quote, perhaps like \~3.

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Junio C Hamano]

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

> Stefan Näwe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes:
>>> 
>>> Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even
>>> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type
>>> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier
>>> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you
>>> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general
>>> anyway.
>>
>> Or even '~1', '~3'.
>
> "^" has a problem when used with other things (does "log ^^2
> origin" mean "log HEAD^2..origin"?  Or "log HEAD^^2 origin"), so I
> do not think it would never fly as an abbreviated syntax.
>
> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still

s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-)

> need to be a bit more careful when analysing the benefit of such an
> abbreviation.  To shells used by many people, these mean tilde
> expansion ~<N> to refer to elements on the dirstack and you need to
> quote, perhaps like \~3.

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)]

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 11:34 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
>
>> Stefan Näwe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Zeeshan Ali (Khattak <zeeshanak <at> gnome.org> writes:
>>>>
>>>> Many times I want to refer to 'HEAD^', 'HEAD^^' and sometimes even
>>>> further up the tree. It would be really nice if I didn't have to type
>>>> 'HEAD^' but could only type '^'. Bash completion make things easier
>>>> but it automatically inserts a space immediately after HEAD so you
>>>> have to hit backspace. I think this change would be good in general
>>>> anyway.
>>>
>>> Or even '~1', '~3'.
>>
>> "^" has a problem when used with other things (does "log ^^2
>> origin" mean "log HEAD^2..origin"?  Or "log HEAD^^2 origin"), so I
>> do not think it would never fly as an abbreviated syntax.

What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?

>> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still
>
> s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-)

Why?

>> need to be a bit more careful when analysing the benefit of such an
>> abbreviation.  To shells used by many people, these mean tilde
>> expansion ~<N> to refer to elements on the dirstack and you need to
>> quote, perhaps like \~3.

That would kinda beat the purpose I think, would be nice to just type
1 key rather than 3 to refer to HEAD (2 keys would still be good
enough IMHO).

-- 
Regards,

Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)
FSF member#5124

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Junio C Hamano]

"Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)" <zeeshanak@gnome.org> writes:

> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?
>
>>> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still
>>
>> s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-)
>
> Why?

That "^^" is the most important reason why your "^ is the same as
HEAD^" is flawed, and goes against my taste.

Think what "log ^^ origin" would mean.  Is it "log ^HEAD^ origin"?
Is it "log HEAD^^ origin"?  They mean totally different things.

Compared to that, at least ~<n> does not have such ambiguity within
the context of Git (having to quote is an ambiguity within the
context of using Git with shells that support dirstacks in their
tilde expansion).

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)" <zeeshanak@gnome.org> writes:
>
>> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?
>>
>>>> While I see your "~<N>" much distasteful compared to "^", you still
>>>
>>> s/dist/less dist/; sorry ;-)
>>
>> Why?
>
> That "^^" is the most important reason why your "^ is the same as
> HEAD^" is flawed, and goes against my taste.
>
> Think what "log ^^ origin" would mean.  Is it "log ^HEAD^ origin"?
> Is it "log HEAD^^ origin"?  They mean totally different things.

Sorry for my ignorance here but what does ^ *before* HEAD even mean? I
tried playing with different combinations of ^ and HEAD here (e.g
^HEAD^, ^HEAD^^, ^HEAD^^^) with both log and show commands but git
just silently returns on them. Is this ^ before HEAD actually used
cause I have never seen/heard of that before. Google isn't able to
help either.

> Compared to that, at least ~<n> does not have such ambiguity within
> the context of Git (having to quote is an ambiguity within the
> context of using Git with shells that support dirstacks in their
> tilde expansion).

Don't know whats dirstacks support either but that I guess just means
that bash (the shell I have always used) doesn't do that.

-- 
Regards,

Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)
FSF member#5124

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Jeff King]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 01:24:18AM +0300, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) wrote:

> > Think what "log ^^ origin" would mean.  Is it "log ^HEAD^ origin"?
> > Is it "log HEAD^^ origin"?  They mean totally different things.
> 
> Sorry for my ignorance here but what does ^ *before* HEAD even mean? I

It means "not" (before "HEAD" or any other commit specifier). See
"Specifying Ranges" in "git help revisions".

> > Compared to that, at least ~<n> does not have such ambiguity within
> > the context of Git (having to quote is an ambiguity within the
> > context of using Git with shells that support dirstacks in their
> > tilde expansion).
> 
> Don't know whats dirstacks support either but that I guess just means
> that bash (the shell I have always used) doesn't do that.

Bash does support them, but you may not use them personally. Here are
some examples of how a more bare "~" can go wrong:

  $ set -x
  [this instructs the shell to show us what it is executing]

  $ git log ~
  + git log /home/peff
  [oops, the shell expanded our home directory and passed it to git]

  $ git log ~1
  + git log '~1'
  [this one works ok, but...]

  $ pushd /tmp
  $ pushd $HOME
  $ git log ~1
  + git log /tmp
  [oops, pushd users cannot use ~<n> without quoting]

-Peff

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Holger Hellmuth]

Am 15.07.2012 00:24, schrieb Zeeshan Ali (Khattak):
> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Junio C Hamano<gitster@pobox.com>  wrote:
>> "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)"<zeeshanak@gnome.org>  writes:
>>
>>> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?

If you want a shortcut, you might try this:

echo "ref: HEAD" > .git/h

Then you can use 'h' instead of 'HEAD'.

Tested it and it seemed to work. If not someone on this list surely will 
correct me.

Re: Support of '^' as alias for 'HEAD^'

[Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 8:45 PM, Holger Hellmuth <hellmuth@ira.uka.de> wrote:
> Am 15.07.2012 00:24, schrieb Zeeshan Ali (Khattak):
>
>> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Junio C Hamano<gitster@pobox.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)"<zeeshanak@gnome.org>  writes:
>>>
>>>> What about '^' and '^^' that I suggested?
>
>
> If you want a shortcut, you might try this:
>
> echo "ref: HEAD" > .git/h
>
> Then you can use 'h' instead of 'HEAD'.
>
> Tested it and it seemed to work. If not someone on this list surely will
> correct me.

Thanks, was hoping to have something thats supported out of the box in
future git but I guess I can settle for a local hack too. :)


-- 
Regards,

Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)
FSF member#5124