Re: [RFC/PATCH] add: warn when -u or -A is used without filepattern

Matthieu Moy [off-list ref] writes:

Most git commands that can be used with our without a filepattern are
tree-wide by default, the filepattern being used to restrict their scope.
A few exceptions are: 'git grep', 'git clean', 'git add -u' and 'git add -A'.

The inconsistancy of 'git add -u' and 'git add -A' are particularly
problematic since other 'git add' subcommands (namely 'git add -p' and
'git add -e') are tree-wide by default.

Flipping the default now is unacceptable, so this patch starts training
users to type explicitely 'git add -u|-A :/' or 'git add -u|-A .', to prepare
for the next steps:

* forbid 'git add -u|-A' without filepattern (like 'git add' without
  option)

* much later, maybe, re-allow 'git add -u|-A' without filepattern, with a
  tree-wide scope.

A nice side effect of this patch is that it makes the :/ special
filepattern easier to discover for users.

Nicely explained.

The first step should look like this patch. The message remains vague
about the next steps ("change in a future Git version", no mention of
the exact change nor of the exact version in which it will happen),
but I'm fine with refining it (perhaps this could be a 2.0 change,
like the change to push.default?).

I think rolling big changes line these to a single version bump
would make sense, if we were to do it.

I have to wonder if "git add -p" and "git add -e" are the ones that
are broken, and the migration suggested here is going in the wrong
direction, though.  After all "add -p" and "add -e" are interactive
by their nature, so it is a _lot_ easier to change their default
behaviour in the name of "usability fix", "consistency fix", or
whatever.  Wouldn't we achieve the same consistency across modes of
"add" if we made them relative to the current directory?