docs: clarify git-branch --list behavior
It was not clear from the "description" section of git-branch(1) that using a <pattern> meant that you _had_ to use the --list option. Let's clarify that, and while we're at it, reword some clunky and ambiguous sentences. Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Jeff King committed
Jan 31, 2013 at 01:45 UTC
de90ff81f3bba50776b934842112eeb6e69a0d23
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Documentation/git-branch.txt
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@@ -22,13 +22,15 @@ SYNOPSIS
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DESCRIPTION
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-----------
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-With no arguments, existing branches are listed and the current branch will
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-be highlighted with an asterisk. Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking
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-branches to be listed, and option `-a` shows both. This list mode is also
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-activated by the `--list` option (see below).
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-<pattern> restricts the output to matching branches, the pattern is a shell
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-wildcard (i.e., matched using fnmatch(3)).
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-Multiple patterns may be given; if any of them matches, the branch is shown.
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+If `--list` is given, or if there are no non-option arguments, existing
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+branches are listed; the current branch will be highlighted with an
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+asterisk. Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed,
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+and option `-a` shows both local and remote branches. If a `<pattern>`
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+is given, it is used as a shell wildcard to restrict the output to
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+matching branches. If multiple patterns are given, a branch is shown if
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+it matches any of the patterns. Note that when providing a
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+`<pattern>`, you must use `--list`; otherwise the command is interpreted
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+as branch creation.
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With `--contains`, shows only the branches that contain the named commit
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(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of the