Re: git status -u is mildly astonishing

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

On Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 04:27:39PM +0200, Matthieu Moy wrote:

quoted

quoted

Therefore I would argue that -u is behaving differently from other
arguments (especially when considered across all git subcommands)

This is because you have options with non-optional argument in mind, or
options that have no short version.

If I grep the source correctly, the only options accepting a short
version and an optional string argument are "{merge,am,commit,revert}
-S", "grep -O" and "status -u", which behave consistantly.

Exactly. This is covered in gitcli(7)*, but I wonder if it is worth
calling attention to this behavior specifically in the documentation of
those options.

I think it does make sense to say it explicitly in the doc for each
option. There are not many, and even though I think Git is doing the
right thing, I also have to admit that it's confusing.

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/