Re: [PATCH v8 00/19] port branch.c to use ref-filter's printing options

On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 5:31 AM, Jacob Keller [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

diff --git a/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt
index f4ad297..c72baeb 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-for-each-ref.txt

@@ -92,13 +92,14 @@ refname::
        The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
        For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append `:short`.
        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
-       abbreviation mode. If `strip=<N>` is appended, strips `<N>`
-       slash-separated path components from the front of the refname
-       (e.g., `%(refname:strip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `foo`.
-       `<N>` must be a positive integer.  If a displayed ref has fewer
-       components than `<N>`, the command aborts with an error. For the base
-       directory of the ref (i.e. foo in refs/foo/bar/boz) append
-       `:base`. For the entire directory path append `:dir`.
+       abbreviation mode. If `lstrip=<N>` or `rstrip=<N>` option can

Grammar here, drop the If before `lstrip since you're referring to
multiples and you say "x can be appended to y" rather than "if x is
added, do y"

Will do. Thanks.

quoted

+       be appended to strip `<N>` slash-separated path components
+       from or end of the refname respectively (e.g.,
+       `%(refname:lstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `foo` and
+       `%(refname:rstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`).  if
+       `<N>` is a negative number, then only `<N>` path components
+       are left behind.  If a displayed ref has fewer components than
+       `<N>`, the command aborts with an error.

Would it make more sense to not die and instead just return the empty
string? On the one hand, if we die() it's obvious that you tried to
strip too many components. But on the other hand, it's also somewhat
annoying to have the whole command fail because we happen upon a
single ref that has fewer components?

So, for positive numbers, we simply strip what we can, which may
result in the empty string, and for negative numbers, we keep up to
what we said, while potentially keeping the entire string. I feel
that's a better alternative than a die() in the middle of a ref
filter..

What are other people's thoughts on this?

I am _for_ this. Even I think it'd be better to return an empty string rather
than just die in the middle.

-- 
Regards,
Karthik Nayak