From: Junio C Hamano Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 09:31:04 +0000 (-0800) Subject: Documentation: do not blindly run 'cat' .git/HEAD, or echo into it. X-Git-Tag: v0.99.9k~3^2~28 X-Git-Url: http://git.tremily.us/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=cd0a781c386b197e63a30104bead39420eada7ca;p=git.git Documentation: do not blindly run 'cat' .git/HEAD, or echo into it. Many places in the documentation we still talked about reading what commit is recorded in .git/HEAD or writing the new head information into it, both assuming .git/HEAD is a symlink. That is not necessarily so. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- diff --git a/Documentation/diff-format.txt b/Documentation/diff-format.txt index b426a14f5..97756ec03 100644 --- a/Documentation/diff-format.txt +++ b/Documentation/diff-format.txt @@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ The "diff" formatting options can be customized via the environment variable 'GIT_DIFF_OPTS'. For example, if you prefer context diff: - GIT_DIFF_OPTS=-c git-diff-index -p $(cat .git/HEAD) + GIT_DIFF_OPTS=-c git-diff-index -p HEAD 2. When the environment variable 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is set, the diff --git a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt index 5cf6bd3e2..a794192d7 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt @@ -26,8 +26,9 @@ to get there. Normally a commit would identify a new "HEAD" state, and while git doesn't care where you save the note about that state, in practice we -tend to just write the result to the file `.git/HEAD`, so that we can -always see what the last committed state was. +tend to just write the result to the file that is pointed at by +`.git/HEAD`, so that we can always see what the last committed +state was. OPTIONS ------- diff --git a/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt b/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt index d8fc78fab..dba6d30fc 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-diff-index.txt @@ -57,14 +57,14 @@ some files in the index and are ready to commit. You want to see eactly *what* you are going to commit is without having to write a new tree object and compare it that way, and to do that, you just do - git-diff-index --cached $(cat .git/HEAD) + git-diff-index --cached HEAD Example: let's say I had renamed `commit.c` to `git-commit.c`, and I had done an "git-update-index" to make that effective in the index file. "git-diff-files" wouldn't show anything at all, since the index file matches my working directory. But doing a "git-diff-index" does: - torvalds@ppc970:~/git> git-diff-index --cached $(cat .git/HEAD) + torvalds@ppc970:~/git> git-diff-index --cached HEAD -100644 blob 4161aecc6700a2eb579e842af0b7f22b98443f74 commit.c +100644 blob 4161aecc6700a2eb579e842af0b7f22b98443f74 git-commit.c @@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ show that. So let's say that you have edited `kernel/sched.c`, but have not actually done a "git-update-index" on it yet - there is no "object" associated with the new state, and you get: - torvalds@ppc970:~/v2.6/linux> git-diff-index $(cat .git/HEAD ) + torvalds@ppc970:~/v2.6/linux> git-diff-index HEAD *100644->100664 blob 7476bb......->000000...... kernel/sched.c ie it shows that the tree has changed, and that `kernel/sched.c` has is diff --git a/Documentation/git-fsck-objects.txt b/Documentation/git-fsck-objects.txt index 37e8055d2..bab1f6080 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-fsck-objects.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-fsck-objects.txt @@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes. So for example - git-fsck-objects --unreachable $(cat .git/HEAD .git/refs/heads/*) + git-fsck-objects --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*) will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are diff --git a/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt index 7be0cbd62..8b9184785 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt @@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ This is done to prevent you from losing your work-in-progress changes. To illustrate, suppose you start from what has been commited last to your repository: - $ JC=`cat .git/HEAD` + $ JC=`git-rev-parse --verify "HEAD^0"` $ git-checkout-index -f -u -a $JC You do random edits, without running git-update-index. And then diff --git a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt index a851ae24c..68ac6a65d 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt @@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ Traditionally, `.git/HEAD` is a symlink pointing at we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we want to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`. This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by -default, but on platforms that does not have working symlinks, -or that does not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit +default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks, +or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit cumbersome. On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as advertised (horrors). diff --git a/README b/README index 4a2616ba5..36fef6ec0 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -396,8 +396,8 @@ git-commit-tree will return the name of the object that represents that commit, and you should save it away for later use. Normally, you'd commit a new `HEAD` state, and while git doesn't care where you save the note about that state, in practice we tend to just write the -result to the file `.git/HEAD`, so that we can always see what the -last committed state was. +result to the file pointed at by `.git/HEAD`, so that we can always see +what the last committed state was. Here is an ASCII art by Jon Loeliger that illustrates how various pieces fit together. @@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ tend to be small and fairly self-explanatory. In particular, if you follow the convention of having the top commit name in `.git/HEAD`, you can do - git-cat-file commit $(cat .git/HEAD) + git-cat-file commit HEAD to see what the top commit was.