Re* [BUG] git-bisect man page description of terms command doesn't mention old/new support

Commit Message

Junio C Hamano Dec. 9, 2023, 4:13 p.m. UTC

Britton Kerin <[e-mail]> writes:

> It's a very small issue but it seems that git bisect terms does
> support --term-old and --term-new options, however the man page says:
>
>     git bisect terms [--term-good | --term-bad]
>
> The description for the start subcommand does document the support for
> the more general terms correctly:
>
>     git bisect start [--term-{new,bad}=<term> --term-{old,good}=<term>]
>
> so maybe it's worth fixing the git bisect terms documentation.

In the description, we see

    To get a reminder of the currently used terms, use

    ------------------------------------------------
    git bisect terms
    ------------------------------------------------

    You can get just the old (respectively new) term with `git bisect terms
    --term-old` or `git bisect terms --term-good`.

so you could read that

	git bisect terms --term-good
	git bisect terms --term-old

are the same thing, and when you squint your eyes, you can probably
guess that

	git bisect terms --term-bad
	git bisect terms --term-new

are the same.  But I agree that the documentation should not force
you to guess.  This dates back to 21b55e33 (bisect: add 'git bisect
terms' to view the current terms, 2015-06-29).

------------ >8 ------------ >8 ------------ >8 ------------
Subject: [PATCH] bisect: document "terms" subcommand more fully

The documentation for "git bisect terms", although it did not hide
any information, was a bit incomplete and forced readers to fill in
the blanks to get the complete picture.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[e-mail]>
---
 Documentation/git-bisect.txt | 8 +++++---
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Comments

Matthieu Moy Dec. 11, 2023, 12:34 p.m. UTC | #1

On 12/9/23 17:13, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> so you could read that
> 
> 	git bisect terms --term-good
> 	git bisect terms --term-old
> 
> are the same thing, and when you squint your eyes, you can probably
> guess that
> 
> 	git bisect terms --term-bad
> 	git bisect terms --term-new
> 
> are the same.  But I agree that the documentation should not force
> you to guess.

Agreed.
> --- c/Documentation/git-bisect.txt
> +++ w/Documentation/git-bisect.txt
> @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ on the subcommand:
>   		  [--no-checkout] [--first-parent] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
>    git bisect (bad|new|<term-new>) [<rev>]
>    git bisect (good|old|<term-old>) [<rev>...]
> - git bisect terms [--term-good | --term-bad]
> + git bisect terms [--term-(good|old) | --term-(bad|new)]

Nit: just above we have the description for `bisect start` saying:

--term-{new,bad}=<term> --term-{old,good}=<term>

it probably makes sense to make both homogeneous (start with the same 
alternative, and make the {...,...} vs (...|...) notations consistent. 
The (...|...) notation seems the most common).

In any case, the patch looks good to me, thanks.

Junio C Hamano Dec. 11, 2023, 3:05 p.m. UTC | #2

Matthieu Moy <[e-mail]> writes:

> Nit: just above we have the description for `bisect start` saying:
>
> --term-{new,bad}=<term> --term-{old,good}=<term>
>
> it probably makes sense to make both homogeneous (start with the same
> alternative, and make the {...,...} vs (...|...) notations
> consistent. The (...|...) notation seems the most common).

Thanks for noticing; I think it has already been fixed a few months
ago, but apparently what I sent predates 3f02785d (doc/git-bisect:
clarify `git bisect run` syntax, 2023-10-23).  So when the patch
gets merged, it will fix itself ;-)

> In any case, the patch looks good to me, thanks.

Thanks.

Patch

diff --git c/Documentation/git-bisect.txt w/Documentation/git-bisect.txt
index 191b4a42b6..16daa09c78 100644
--- c/Documentation/git-bisect.txt
+++ w/Documentation/git-bisect.txt
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@  on the subcommand:
 		  [--no-checkout] [--first-parent] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
  git bisect (bad|new|<term-new>) [<rev>]
  git bisect (good|old|<term-old>) [<rev>...]
- git bisect terms [--term-good | --term-bad]
+ git bisect terms [--term-(good|old) | --term-(bad|new)]
  git bisect skip [(<rev>|<range>)...]
  git bisect reset [<commit>]
  git bisect (visualize|view)
@@ -165,8 +165,10 @@  To get a reminder of the currently used terms, use
 git bisect terms
 ------------------------------------------------
 
-You can get just the old (respectively new) term with `git bisect terms
---term-old` or `git bisect terms --term-good`.
+You can get just the old term with `git bisect terms --term-old`
+or `git bisect terms --term-good`; `git bisect terms --term-new`
+and `git bisect terms --term-bad` can be used to learn how to call
+the commits more recent than the sought change.
 
 If you would like to use your own terms instead of "bad"/"good" or
 "new"/"old", you can choose any names you like (except existing bisect