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cat-file doc: document that -e will return some output

The -e option added in 7950571ad7 ("A few more options for
git-cat-file", 2005-12-03) has always errored out with message on
stderr saying that the provided object is malformed, like this:

    $ git cat-file -e malformed; echo $?
    fatal: Not a valid object name malformed
    128

A reader of this documentation may be misled into thinking that

    if ! git cat-file -e "$object" [...]

as opposed to:

    if ! git cat-file -e "$object" 2>/dev/null [...]

is sufficient to implement a truly silent test that checks whether
some arbitrary $object string was both valid, and pointed to an
object that exists.

Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
maint
Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 7 years ago committed by Junio C Hamano
parent
commit
9bd2ce5432
  1. 7
      Documentation/git-cat-file.txt

7
Documentation/git-cat-file.txt

@ -42,8 +42,9 @@ OPTIONS @@ -42,8 +42,9 @@ OPTIONS
<object>.

-e::
Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object>
exists and is a valid object.
Exit with zero status if <object> exists and is a valid
object. If <object> is of an invalid format exit with non-zero and
emits an error on stderr.

-p::
Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type.
@ -168,7 +169,7 @@ If `-t` is specified, one of the <type>. @@ -168,7 +169,7 @@ If `-t` is specified, one of the <type>.

If `-s` is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes.

If `-e` is specified, no output.
If `-e` is specified, no output, unless the <object> is malformed.

If `-p` is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed.


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