Merge branch 'jc/usage-stdin'

The synopsis text and the usage string of subcommands that read
list of things from the standard input are often shown as if they
only take input from a file on a filesystem, which was misleading.

* jc/usage-stdin:
  usage: do not insist that standard input must come from a file

13 files changed, 51 insertions, 28 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt b/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
index 3105fc0720..eb3d6945a9 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object>
-'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [--follow-symlinks] < <list-of-objects>
+'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [--follow-symlinks]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
index 00e2aa2df2..aa3b2bf2fc 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git check-attr' [-a | --all | attr...] [--] pathname...
-'git check-attr' --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | attr...] < <list-of-paths>
+'git check-attr' --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | attr...]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ OPTIONS
 	Consider `.gitattributes` in the index only, ignoring the working tree.
 
 --stdin::
-	Read file names from stdin instead of from the command-line.
+	Read pathnames from the standard input, one per line,
+	instead of from the command-line.
 
 -z::
 	The output format is modified to be machine-parseable.
diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-ignore.txt b/Documentation/git-check-ignore.txt
index e35cd0489b..59531abba4 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-check-ignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-check-ignore.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git check-ignore' [options] pathname...
-'git check-ignore' [options] --stdin < <list-of-paths>
+'git check-ignore' [options] --stdin
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ OPTIONS
 	for each given pathname.
 
 --stdin::
-	Read file names from stdin instead of from the command-line.
+	Read pathnames from the standard input, one per line,
+	instead of from the command-line.
 
 -z::
 	The output format is modified to be machine-parseable (see
diff --git a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
index a0b5457304..48c33d7ed7 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-commit-tree - Create a new commit object
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git commit-tree' <tree> [(-p <parent>)...] < changelog
+'git commit-tree' <tree> [(-p <parent>)...]
 'git commit-tree' [(-p <parent>)...] [-S[<keyid>]] [(-m <message>)...]
 		  [(-F <file>)...] <tree>
 
diff --git a/Documentation/git-fmt-merge-msg.txt b/Documentation/git-fmt-merge-msg.txt
index 55a9a4b93a..6526b178e8 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-fmt-merge-msg.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-fmt-merge-msg.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-fmt-merge-msg - Produce a merge commit message
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git fmt-merge-msg' [-m <message>] [--log[=<n>] | --no-log] <$GIT_DIR/FETCH_HEAD
+'git fmt-merge-msg' [-m <message>] [--log[=<n>] | --no-log]
 'git fmt-merge-msg' [-m <message>] [--log[=<n>] | --no-log] -F <file>
 
 DESCRIPTION
@@ -57,6 +57,18 @@ merge.summary::
 	Synonym to `merge.log`; this is deprecated and will be removed in
 	the future.
 
+EXAMPLE
+-------
+
+--
+$ git fetch origin master
+$ git fmt-merge-msg --log <$GIT_DIR/FETCH_HEAD
+--
+
+Print a log message describing a merge of the "master" branch from
+the "origin" remote.
+
+
 SEE ALSO
 --------
 linkgit:git-merge[1]
diff --git a/Documentation/git-get-tar-commit-id.txt b/Documentation/git-get-tar-commit-id.txt
index 1e2a20dd26..ac44d85b0b 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-get-tar-commit-id.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-get-tar-commit-id.txt
@@ -9,17 +9,19 @@ git-get-tar-commit-id - Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-arch
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git get-tar-commit-id' < <tarfile>
+'git get-tar-commit-id'
 
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-Acts as a filter, extracting the commit ID stored in archives created by
-'git archive'.  It reads only the first 1024 bytes of input, thus its
-runtime is not influenced by the size of <tarfile> very much.
+
+Read a tar archive created by 'git archive' from the standard input
+and extract the commit ID stored in it.  It reads only the first
+1024 bytes of input, thus its runtime is not influenced by the size
+of the tar archive very much.
 
 If no commit ID is found, 'git get-tar-commit-id' quietly exists with a
-return code of 1.  This can happen if <tarfile> had not been created
+return code of 1.  This can happen if the archive had not been created
 using 'git archive' or if the first parameter of 'git archive' had been
 a tree ID instead of a commit ID or tag.
 
diff --git a/Documentation/git-hash-object.txt b/Documentation/git-hash-object.txt
index 0c75f3b610..814e74406a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-hash-object.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-hash-object.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git hash-object' [-t <type>] [-w] [--path=<file>|--no-filters] [--stdin [--literally]] [--] <file>...
-'git hash-object' [-t <type>] [-w] --stdin-paths [--no-filters] < <list-of-paths>
+'git hash-object' [-t <type>] [-w] --stdin-paths [--no-filters]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ OPTIONS
 	Read the object from standard input instead of from a file.
 
 --stdin-paths::
-	Read file names from stdin instead of from the command-line.
+	Read file names from the standard input, one per line, instead
+	of from the command-line.
 
 --path::
 	Hash object as it were located at the given path. The location of
diff --git a/Documentation/git-mktag.txt b/Documentation/git-mktag.txt
index 3ca158b05e..fa6a756123 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-mktag.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-mktag.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-mktag - Creates a tag object
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git mktag' < signature_file
+'git mktag'
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ The output is the new tag's <object> identifier.
 
 Tag Format
 ----------
-A tag signature file has a very simple fixed format: four lines of
+A tag signature file, to be fed to this command's standard input,
+has a very simple fixed format: four lines of
 
   object <sha1>
   type <typename>
diff --git a/Documentation/git-patch-id.txt b/Documentation/git-patch-id.txt
index 31efc587ee..cf71fba1c0 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-patch-id.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-patch-id.txt
@@ -8,10 +8,12 @@ git-patch-id - Compute unique ID for a patch
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git patch-id' [--stable | --unstable] < <patch>
+'git patch-id' [--stable | --unstable]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
+Read a patch from the standard input and compute the patch ID for it.
+
 A "patch ID" is nothing but a sum of SHA-1 of the file diffs associated with a
 patch, with whitespace and line numbers ignored.  As such, it's "reasonably
 stable", but at the same time also reasonably unique, i.e., two patches that
diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-index.txt b/Documentation/git-show-index.txt
index fbdc8adae5..a8a9509e0e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-show-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-show-index.txt
@@ -9,13 +9,14 @@ git-show-index - Show packed archive index
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git show-index' < idx-file
+'git show-index'
 
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-Reads given idx file for packed Git archive created with
-'git pack-objects' command, and dumps its contents.
+Read the idx file for a Git packfile created with
+'git pack-objects' command from the standard input, and
+dump its contents.
 
 The information it outputs is subset of what you can get from
 'git verify-pack -v'; this command only shows the packfile
diff --git a/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt
index 2a6f89b235..3a32451984 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-show-ref.txt
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 'git show-ref' [-q|--quiet] [--verify] [--head] [-d|--dereference]
 	     [-s|--hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
 	     [--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
-'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>] < ref-list
+'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -23,8 +23,9 @@ particular ref exists.
 
 By default, shows the tags, heads, and remote refs.
 
-The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse, it shows the
-refs from stdin that don't exist in the local repository.
+The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse. It reads
+refs from stdin, one ref per line, and shows those that don't exist in
+the local repository.
 
 Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files under
 the `.git` directory.
diff --git a/Documentation/git-stripspace.txt b/Documentation/git-stripspace.txt
index 60328d5d08..2438f76da0 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-stripspace.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-stripspace.txt
@@ -9,14 +9,15 @@ git-stripspace - Remove unnecessary whitespace
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git stripspace' [-s | --strip-comments] < input
-'git stripspace' [-c | --comment-lines] < input
+'git stripspace' [-s | --strip-comments]
+'git stripspace' [-c | --comment-lines]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
-Clean the input in the manner used by Git for text such as commit
-messages, notes, tags and branch descriptions.
+Read text, such as commit messages, notes, tags and branch
+descriptions, from the standard input and clean it in the manner
+used by Git.
 
 With no arguments, this will:
 
diff --git a/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt b/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt
index 07d432988f..3e887d1610 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-unpack-objects - Unpack objects from a packed archive
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git unpack-objects' [-n] [-q] [-r] [--strict] < <packfile>
+'git unpack-objects' [-n] [-q] [-r] [--strict]
 
 
 DESCRIPTION