"needs update" considered harmful

"git update-index --refresh", "git reset" and "git add --refresh" have
reported paths that have local modifications as "needs update" since the
beginning of git.

Although this is logically correct in that you need to update the index at
that path before you can commit that change, it is now becoming more and
more clear, especially with the continuous push for user friendliness
since 1.5.0 series, that the message is suboptimal.  After all, the change
may be something the user might want to get rid of, and "updating" would
be absolutely a wrong thing to do if that is the case.

I prepared two alternatives to solve this.  Both aim to reword the message
to more neutral "locally modified".

This patch is a more intrusive variant that changes the message for only
Porcelain commands ("add" and "reset") while keeping the plumbing
"update-index" intact.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

5 files changed, 9 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/builtin-add.c b/builtin-add.c
index bf13aa3ad6..0800b14ac6 100644
--- a/builtin-add.c
+++ b/builtin-add.c
@@ -142,7 +142,8 @@ static void refresh(int verbose, const char **pathspec)
 	seen = xcalloc(specs, 1);
 	if (read_cache() < 0)
 		die("index file corrupt");
-	refresh_index(&the_index, verbose ? 0 : REFRESH_QUIET, pathspec, seen);
+	refresh_index(&the_index, verbose ? REFRESH_SAY_CHANGED : REFRESH_QUIET,
+		      pathspec, seen);
 	for (i = 0; i < specs; i++) {
 		if (!seen[i])
 			die("pathspec '%s' did not match any files", pathspec[i]);
diff --git a/builtin-reset.c b/builtin-reset.c
index 2e5a8867ac..4d246c31b1 100644
--- a/builtin-reset.c
+++ b/builtin-reset.c
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ static int update_index_refresh(int fd, struct lock_file *index_lock)
 
 	if (read_cache() < 0)
 		return error("Could not read index");
-	result = refresh_cache(0) ? 1 : 0;
+	result = refresh_cache(REFRESH_SAY_CHANGED) ? 1 : 0;
 	if (write_cache(fd, active_cache, active_nr) ||
 			commit_locked_index(index_lock))
 		return error ("Could not refresh index");
diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index 305e2f701b..38985aa63e 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -398,6 +398,7 @@ extern void fill_stat_cache_info(struct cache_entry *ce, struct stat *st);
 #define REFRESH_QUIET		0x0004	/* be quiet about it */
 #define REFRESH_IGNORE_MISSING	0x0008	/* ignore non-existent */
 #define REFRESH_IGNORE_SUBMODULES	0x0010	/* ignore submodules */
+#define REFRESH_SAY_CHANGED	0x0020	/* say "changed" not "needs update" */
 extern int refresh_index(struct index_state *, unsigned int flags, const char **pathspec, char *seen);
 
 struct lock_file {
diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 16484281f7..a50a851125 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -980,7 +980,10 @@ int refresh_index(struct index_state *istate, unsigned int flags, const char **p
 	int not_new = (flags & REFRESH_IGNORE_MISSING) != 0;
 	int ignore_submodules = (flags & REFRESH_IGNORE_SUBMODULES) != 0;
 	unsigned int options = really ? CE_MATCH_IGNORE_VALID : 0;
+	const char *needs_update_message;
 
+	needs_update_message = ((flags & REFRESH_SAY_CHANGED)
+				? "locally modified" : "needs update");
 	for (i = 0; i < istate->cache_nr; i++) {
 		struct cache_entry *ce, *new;
 		int cache_errno = 0;
@@ -1019,7 +1022,7 @@ int refresh_index(struct index_state *istate, unsigned int flags, const char **p
 			}
 			if (quiet)
 				continue;
-			printf("%s: needs update\n", ce->name);
+			printf("%s: %s\n", ce->name, needs_update_message);
 			has_errors = 1;
 			continue;
 		}
diff --git a/t/t7102-reset.sh b/t/t7102-reset.sh
index 0bfc1e9be4..29f5678b4c 100755
--- a/t/t7102-reset.sh
+++ b/t/t7102-reset.sh
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ test_expect_success 'resetting an unmodified path is a no-op' '
 '
 
 cat > expect << EOF
-file2: needs update
+file2: locally modified
 EOF
 
 test_expect_success '--mixed refreshes the index' '