Clarify and fix English in "git-rm" documentation

Do some verb-noun agreement changes.
Clarify some file globbing cases.
Fixed a wrong statement in an example.

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

diff --git a/Documentation/git-rm.txt b/Documentation/git-rm.txt
index dc36c662ae0d60b7dc706fce67a7c81849caace6..9c81b72dbebfec9b77128fb58d5aab33a143d594 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-rm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rm.txt
@@ -11,28 +11,37 @@ SYNOPSIS
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-Remove files from the working tree and from the index.  The
-files have to be identical to the tip of the branch, and no
-updates to its contents must have been placed in the staging
-area (aka index).  When --cached is given, the staged content has to
-match either the tip of the branch *or* the file on disk.
+Remove files from the index, or from the working tree and the index.
+`git rm` will not remove a file from just your working directory.
+(There is no option to remove a file only from the work tree
+and yet keep it in the index; use `/bin/rm` if you want to do that.)
+The files being removed have to be identical to the tip of the branch,
+and no updates to their contents can be staged in the index,
+though that default behavior can be overridden with the `-f` option.
+When '--cached' is given, the staged content has to
+match either the tip of the branch or the file on disk,
+allowing the file to be removed from just the index.
 
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
 <file>...::
        Files to remove.  Fileglobs (e.g. `*.c`) can be given to
-       remove all matching files.  Also a leading directory name
-       (e.g. `dir` to add `dir/file1` and `dir/file2`) can be
-       given to remove all files in the directory, recursively,
-       but this requires `-r` option to be given for safety.
+       remove all matching files.  If you want git to expand
+       file glob characters, you may need to shell-escape them.
+       A leading directory name
+       (e.g. `dir` to remove `dir/file1` and `dir/file2`) can be
+       given to remove all files in the directory, and recursively
+       all sub-directories,
+       but this requires the `-r` option to be explicitly given.
 
 -f::
        Override the up-to-date check.
 
 -n, \--dry-run::
-        Don't actually remove the file(s), just show if they exist in
-        the index.
+       Don't actually remove any file(s).  Instead, just show
+       if they exist in the index and would otherwise be removed
+       by the command.
 
 -r::
         Allow recursive removal when a leading directory name is
@@ -44,9 +53,9 @@ OPTIONS
        for command-line options).
 
 \--cached::
-       This option can be used to tell the command to remove
-       the paths only from the index, leaving working tree
-       files.
+       Use this option to unstage and remove paths only from the index.
+       Working tree files, whether modified or not, will be
+       left alone.
 
 \--ignore-unmatch::
        Exit with a zero status even if no files matched.
@@ -59,11 +68,15 @@ OPTIONS
 DISCUSSION
 ----------
 
-The list of <file> given to the command can be exact pathnames,
-file glob patterns, or leading directory name.  The command
-removes only the paths that is known to git.  Giving the name of
+The <file> list given to the command can be exact pathnames,
+file glob patterns, or leading directory names.  The command
+removes only the paths that are known to git.  Giving the name of
 a file that you have not told git about does not remove that file.
 
+File globbing matches across directory boundaries.  Thus, given
+two directories `d` and `d2`, there is a difference between
+using `git rm \'d\*\'` and `git rm \'d/\*\'`, as the former will
+also remove all of directory `d2`.
 
 EXAMPLES
 --------
@@ -72,11 +85,10 @@ git-rm Documentation/\\*.txt::
        `Documentation` directory and any of its subdirectories.
 +
 Note that the asterisk `\*` is quoted from the shell in this
-example; this lets the command include the files from
-subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
+example; this lets git, and not the shell, expand the pathnames
+of files and subdirectories under the `Documentation/` directory.
 
 git-rm -f git-*.sh::
-       Remove all git-*.sh scripts that are in the index.
        Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk
        (i.e. you are listing the files explicitly), it
        does not remove `subdir/git-foo.sh`.