Re: [PATCH] help: include list of aliases in git-help --all

On 26 February 2014 08:51, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

Joel Nothman [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

arguments to git help. They are also like commands in that it is
possible to forget their name, or whether they are defined on a
particular workstation, and to hence want a listing.

I did envision that it would be useful for the last case, but then
the users would be helped even more if they can get a list of ONLY
aliases, not buried in many standard commands they already know
about.

The list is partitioned. It is partitioned already between
git-installed commands and others on the path. This patch adds a third
partition when required. So they *do* see only aliases... after all
the commands.

Note also that any command on the path will override an alias with the
same name. So in order to list (effective) aliases, you need to
calculate the list of commands as well. If someone defines an alias
overridden by a command, git help -a now makes that apparent by
excluding the alias and including the command above it, while `git
config --get-regexp ^alias` does not.

In other words, I was not fundamentally opposed to *a* way to get a
list that includes aliases, but I was not convinced if it is a good
idea to *change* the output, which people knew would consist of
commands but not aliases, to suddenly start including aliases.

I don't think this will concern most users for whom aliases are
non-existent, and hence no section will be shown.