From: Ian Wienand <iwienand@redhat•com>
To: git@vger•kernel.org
Cc: Ian Wienand <iwienand@redhat•com>
Subject: [PATCH v7 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion
Date: Mon, 27 May 2024 10:30:48 +1000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20240527003208.1565249-2-iwienand@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20240527003208.1565249-1-iwienand@redhat.com>
When writing inline shell for shell-expansion aliases (i.e. prefixed
with "!"), there are some caveats around argument parsing to be aware
of. This series of notes attempts to explain what is happening more
clearly.
Signed-off-by: Ian Wienand <iwienand@redhat•com>
---
Documentation/config/alias.txt | 14 ++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/config/alias.txt b/Documentation/config/alias.txt
index 40851ef429..75f9f5e26f 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/alias.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/alias.txt
@@ -27,3 +27,17 @@ it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
repository, which may not necessarily be the current directory.
* `GIT_PREFIX` is set as returned by running `git rev-parse --show-prefix`
from the original current directory. See linkgit:git-rev-parse[1].
+* Shell command aliases always receive any extra arguments provided to
+ the Git command-line as positional arguments.
+** Care should be taken if your shell alias is a "one-liner" script
+ with multiple commands (e.g. in a pipeline), references multiple
+ arguments, or is otherwise not able to handle positional arguments
+ appended via `"$@"`. For example: `alias.cmd = "!echo $1 | grep
+ $2"` called as `git cmd 1 2` will be executed as 'echo $1 | grep $2
+ 1 2', which is not what you want.
+** A convenient way to deal with this is to write your script
+ operations in an inline function that is then called with any
+ arguments from the command-line. For example `alias.cmd = "!c() {
+ echo $1 | grep $2 ; }; c" will correctly execute the prior example.
+** Setting `GIT_TRACE=1` can help you debug the command being run for
+ your alias.
--
2.45.1
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-05-27 0:32 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-05-22 2:41 [PATCH] alias: document caveats and add trace of prepared command Ian Wienand
2024-05-22 3:29 ` Eric Sunshine
2024-05-22 16:07 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-23 0:38 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:20 ` [PATCH v2 1/3] Documentation: alias: rework notes into points Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:20 ` [PATCH v2 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:20 ` [PATCH v2 3/3] run-command: show prepared command Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:27 ` [PATCH v2 1/3] Documentation: alias: rework notes into points Eric Sunshine
2024-05-23 4:39 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:37 ` [PATCH v3 " Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:37 ` [PATCH v3 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 4:37 ` [PATCH v3 3/3] run-command: show prepared command Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 15:29 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-23 23:40 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-24 6:09 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-24 7:18 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-24 15:33 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-24 0:43 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-24 17:50 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-25 1:13 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-23 15:14 ` [PATCH v3 1/3] Documentation: alias: rework notes into points Junio C Hamano
2024-05-24 7:32 ` [PATCH v4 " Ian Wienand
2024-05-24 7:32 ` [PATCH v4 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion Ian Wienand
2024-05-24 7:32 ` [PATCH v4 3/3] run-command: show prepared command Ian Wienand
2024-05-24 19:16 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-24 19:58 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-25 1:14 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 1:20 ` [PATCH v5 1/3] Documentation: alias: rework notes into points Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 1:20 ` [PATCH v5 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 1:20 ` [PATCH v5 3/3] run-command: show prepared command Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 5:44 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-25 6:06 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-25 23:49 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 23:44 ` [PATCH v6 1/3] Documentation: alias: rework notes into points Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 23:44 ` [PATCH v6 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion Ian Wienand
2024-05-26 23:26 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-27 0:22 ` Ian Wienand
2024-05-25 23:44 ` [PATCH v6 3/3] run-command: show prepared command Ian Wienand
2024-05-26 16:20 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-27 0:30 ` [PATCH v7 1/3] Documentation: alias: rework notes into points Ian Wienand
2024-05-27 0:30 ` Ian Wienand [this message]
2024-05-27 17:48 ` [PATCH v7 2/3] Documentation: alias: add notes on shell expansion Junio C Hamano
2024-05-27 0:30 ` [PATCH v7 3/3] run-command: show prepared command Ian Wienand
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