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2026-01-06doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset <pathspec>`Julia Evans
From user feedback: - Continued confusion about the terms "tree-ish" and "pathspec" - The word "hunks" is confusing folks, use "changes" instead. - On the part about `git restore`, there were a few comments to the effect of "wait, this doesn't actually update any files? What? Why?" Be more direct that `git reset` does not update files: there's no obvious reason to suggest that folks use `git reset` followed by `git restore`, instead suggest just using `git restore`. Continue avoiding the use of the word "reset" to describe what "git reset" does. Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2026-01-06doc: git-reset: clarify `git reset [mode]`Julia Evans
From user feedback, there was some confusion about the differences between the modes, including: 1. Sometimes it says "index" and sometimes "index file". Fix by replacing "index file" with "index". 2. Many comments about not being able to understand what `--merge` does. Fix by mentioning obscure situations, since that seems to be what it's for. Most folks will use `git <cmd> --abort`. 3. Issues telling the difference between --soft and --mixed, as well as --keep. Leave --keep alone because I couldn't understand its use case, but change `--soft` / `--mixed` / `--hard` as follows: --mixed is the default, so put it first. Describe --soft/--mixed/--hard with the following structure: * Start by saying what happens to the files in the working directory, because the thing users want to avoid most is irretrievably losing changes to their working directory files. * Then describe what happens to the staging area. Right now it seems to frame leaving the index alone as being a sort of neutral action. I think this is part of what's confusing users, because in Git when you update HEAD, Git almost always updates the index to match HEAD. So leaving the index unchanged while updating HEAD is actually quite unusual, and it deserves to be flagged. * Finally, give an example for --soft to explain a common use case. Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2026-01-06doc: git-reset: clarify introJulia Evans
From user feedback, there were several points of confusion: - What "tree-ish", "entries", "working tree", "HEAD", and "index" mean ("I have no clue what the index is", "I've been using git for 20 years and still don't know what a tree-ish is"). Avoid using these terms where it makes sense. - What "optionally modifying index and working tree to match" means ("to match what?" "optionally based on what?") Remove this from the intro, we can say it later when giving more details. - One user suggested that "The <tree-ish>/<commit> defaults to HEAD in all forms." should be repeated later on, since it's easy to miss. Instead say that HEAD is the default in each case later. Another issue is that `git reset` consistently describes the action it does as "Reset ...", commands should not use their name to describe themselves, and that the word "mode" is used to mean several different things on this page. Address these by being more clear about two use cases for `git reset` ("to undo operations" and "to update staged files"), and explaining what the conditions are for each case instead of forcing the user to figure out the pattern is in first form vs the other 3 forms. Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2026-01-06doc: git-reset: reorder the formsJulia Evans
From user feedback: three users commented that the `git reset [mode]` form is the one that they primarily use, and that they were suprised to see it listed last. ("I've never used git reset in any mode other than --hard"). Move it to be first, since the `git reset [mode]` form is what "Reset current HEAD to the specified state" at the beginning refers to, and because the `git reset [mode]` form is the only thing that `git reset` uniquely does, the others could also be done with `git restore`. Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble+github@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-08-11doc: check for absence of the form --[no-]parameterJean-Noël Avila
For better searchability, this commit adds a check to ensure that parameters expressed in the form of `--[no-]parameter` are not used in the documentation. In the place of such parameters, the documentation should list two separate parameters: `--parameter` and `--no-parameter`. Signed-off-by: Jean-Noël Avila <jn.avila@free.fr> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-07-29add-patch: add diff.context command line overridesLeon Michalak
This patch compliments the previous commit, where builtins that use add-patch infrastructure now respect diff.context and diff.interHunkContext file configurations. In particular, this patch helps users who don't want to set persistent context configurations or just want a way to override them on a one-time basis, by allowing the relevant builtins to accept corresponding command line options that override the file configurations. This mimics commands such as diff and log, which allow for both context file configuration and command line overrides. Signed-off-by: Leon Michalak <leonmichalak6@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-04-14doc: convert git-reset to new documentation formatJean-Noël Avila
- Switch the synopsis to a synopsis block which will automatically format placeholders in italics and keywords in monospace - Use _<placeholder>_ instead of <placeholder> in the description - Use `backticks` for keywords and more complex option descriptions. The new rendering engine will apply synopsis rules to these spans. Signed-off-by: Jean-Noël Avila <jn.avila@free.fr> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-01-21doc: use .adoc extension for AsciiDoc filesbrian m. carlson
We presently use the ".txt" extension for our AsciiDoc files. While not wrong, most editors do not associate this extension with AsciiDoc, meaning that contributors don't get automatic editor functionality that could be useful, such as syntax highlighting and prose linting. It is much more common to use the ".adoc" extension for AsciiDoc files, since this helps editors automatically detect files and also allows various forges to provide rich (HTML-like) rendering. Let's do that here, renaming all of the files and updating the includes where relevant. Adjust the various build scripts and makefiles to use the new extension as well. Note that this should not result in any user-visible changes to the documentation. Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>