Teach "git describe" --dirty option
With the --dirty option, git describe works on HEAD but append s"-dirty"
iff the contents of the work tree differs from HEAD. E.g.
$ git describe --dirty
v1.6.5-15-gc274db7
$ echo >> Makefile
$ git describe --dirty
v1.6.5-15-gc274db7-dirty
The --dirty option can also be used to specify what is appended, instead
of the default string "-dirty".
$ git describe --dirty=.mod
v1.6.5-15-gc274db7.mod
Many build scripts use `git describe` to produce a version number based on
the description of HEAD (on which the work tree is based) + saying that if
the build contains uncommitted changes. This patch helps the writing of
such scripts since `git describe --dirty` does directly the intended thing.
Three possiblities were considered while discussing this new feature:
1. Describe the work tree by default and describe HEAD only if "HEAD" is
explicitly specified
Pro: does the right thing by default (both for users and for scripts)
Pro: other git commands that works on the work tree by default
Con: breaks existing scripts used by the Linux kernel and other projects
2. Use --worktree instead of --dirty
Pro: does what it says: "git describe --worktree" describes the work tree
Con: other commands do not require a --worktree option when working
on the work tree (it often is the default mode for them)
Con: unusable with an optional value: "git describe --worktree=.mod"
is quite unintuitive.
3. Use --dirty as in this patch
Pro: makes sense to specify an optional value (what the dirty mark is)
Pro: does not have any of the big cons of previous alternatives
* does not break scripts
* is not inconsistent with other git commands
This patch takes the third approach.
Signed-off-by: Jean Privat <jean@pryen.org>
Acked-by: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>