Improve documentation and comments regarding directory traversal API

diff --git a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt
index 210fde03a12cd757769f81754e789a2a5934f02c..981d3a8fc12cde403cd2d29c86a63b56ca3028b3 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt
@@ -7,16 +7,18 @@ git-symbolic-ref - Read and modify symbolic refs
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [-m <reason>] <name> [<ref>]
+[verse]
+'git symbolic-ref' [-m <reason>] <name> <ref>
+'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [--short] <name>
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic
 ref refers to and outputs its path, relative to the `.git/`
 directory.  Typically you would give `HEAD` as the <name>
-argument to see on which branch your working tree is on.
+argument to see which branch your working tree is on.
 
-Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to
+Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to
 point at the given branch <ref>.
 
 A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that
@@ -32,6 +34,10 @@ OPTIONS
        symbolic ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with
        non-zero status silently.
 
+--short::
+       When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, try to shorten the
+       value, e.g. from `refs/heads/master` to `master`.
+
 -m::
        Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>.  This is valid only
        when creating or updating a symbolic ref.
@@ -42,21 +48,14 @@ In the past, `.git/HEAD` was a symbolic link pointing at
 `refs/heads/master`.  When we wanted to switch to another branch,
 we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we wanted
 to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`.
-This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by
-default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks,
-or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit
-cumbersome.  On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as
-advertised (horrors).  Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated
-and symbolic refs are used by default.
-
-'git-symbolic-ref' will exit with status 0 if the contents of the
+But symbolic links are not entirely portable, so they are now
+deprecated and symbolic refs (as described above) are used by
+default.
+
+'git symbolic-ref' will exit with status 0 if the contents of the
 symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested
 name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs.
 
-Author
-------
-Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
-
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite