Re: git commit --amen

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

Phil Hord [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

quoted

Is it normal that "git commit --amen" actually works ?
(it does like --amend)

version 1.7.10.4

Yes.  From Documentation/technical/api-parse-options.txt:

    * Long options may be 'abbreviated', as long as the abbreviation
      is unambiguous.

Apparently since 2008-06-22.

Notice "technical/api-" part; that is a _wrong_ documentation page
to quote to end users.

Instead quote from "git help cli".

       From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not
       all of them at the time of the writing though) come with an
       enhanced option parser.

quoted

So 'git commit --am' also works.  But it should probably be avoided
because of its similarity to 'git commit -am'.

Yes, in general, you should avoid relying on shortened form
working.  Git 2.4 may add an option "--amen" that has totally
different meaning.

Perhaps a patch along this line might not hurt.

 Documentation/gitcli.txt | 12 +++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git i/Documentation/gitcli.txt w/Documentation/gitcli.txt
index f6ba90c..3bc1500 100644
--- i/Documentation/gitcli.txt
+++ w/Documentation/gitcli.txt

@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
 From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the
 time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
 
-Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
+Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
 
 
 Magic Options

@@ -137,6 +137,16 @@ options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or
 `git clean -fdx`.
 
 
+Abbreviating long options
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique
+prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this
+with a caution.  For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you
+typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version
+of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix,
+e.g `git commit --amenity" option.
+
+
 Separating argument from the option
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate