Subject: Re: Status of all files (was: Re: How can I tell if a file is ignored by git?

From: Eric Raymond <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 12:24:25 -0400

Matthieu Moy <[email-masked]>:
> Eric Raymond <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
> > (The ls-files -t codes need better documentation.  If I get detailed enough
> > answers, I will write some.)
> 
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/126516
> 
> In short, "git ls-files -t" was written long ago, never tested, and
> probably mostly used by no one. It has a very strange behavior, it's
> not just the doc. I'd advise against using it.

It sounds very much to me as though this feature should be scheduled
for deletion.
 
> "git status --porcelain" is probably what you want:
> 
>        --porcelain
>            Give the output in a stable, easy-to-parse format for
>            scripts. Currently this is identical to --short output, but
>            is guaranteed not to change in the future, making it safe
>            for scripts.

Yes, this looks like what I would want, all right - if the status
codes were actually *comprehensible*! 

We should tackle this right now, because VC is not the last front end
that will need to parse the format and at least I am willing to patch
your docs based on what I learn.  Most of your other customers won't
do that.

I'm going to start a separate thread about this.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>