Re: [PATCH 1/7] cat-file: disable object/refname ambiguity check for batch mode

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

To cat-file we could add an option like "--sha1-only" or "--literal" or
"--no-dwim" (... better names are failing me) which would skip *all*
dwimming of 40-character strings.  It would also assume that any shorter
strings are abbreviated SHA-1s and fail if they are not.  This would be
a nice feature by itself ("these are object names, dammit, and don't try
to tell me differently!") and would have the additional small advantage
of speeding up lookups of abbreviated SHA-1s, which (regardless of your
patch) otherwise go through the whole DWIM process.

I can see in theory that somebody might want that, but I am having a
hard time thinking of a practical use.

Would it be a good alternative to call get_sha1_hex() to catch the
most common case (reading from rev-list output, for example) and
then let the more general get_sha1() to let extended SHA-1 to be
handled?

IOW, it seems like a poor default, and we are choosing it only because
of backwards compatibility. I guess another option is to switch the
default with the usual deprecation dance.

I agree that "did you mean the unreadable refname or 40-hex object?"
turned on everywhere get_sha1() is called is a very poor default.  I
wonder if we can limit it only to the end-user input somehow at the
API level.