Re: [PATCH] describe: when failing, tell the user about options that work

Junio C Hamano wrote:

Thomas Rast [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

@@ -259,7 +260,14 @@ static void describe(const char *arg, int last_one)
 			printf("%s\n", find_unique_abbrev(sha1, abbrev));
 			return;
 		}
-		die("cannot describe '%s'", sha1_to_hex(sha1));
+		if (unannotated_cnt)
+			die("cannot describe '%s'"
+			    " with only\nannotated tags. Try --tags.",

Did you mean UNannotated tags here?

No, but I think I see where the misunderstanding came from.

This code path means that we did not find a tag to describe with, but
we counted some unannotated tags (and because of how the counting
logic is wrapped, this only triggers when neither --all nor --tags are
in effect).

So I wanted it to say "it is impossible to describe this with the tags
you told me to use", which in this case are the annotated ones.

I tried to keep the general structure of the message ("cannot describe
..."), and with this restriction I can't seem to find a clearer
wording.  However, it could be written e.g.

  No annotated tags can describe '%s'.  However, there were
  unannotated tags: try --tags.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch