GIT : what does mean "to dump"?

Question

I am following the git tutorial here: http://gitimmersion.com/lab_23.html

It talks about dumping files/directories using the command:

git cat-file -p <hash>

I do not understand what "dump" means. I am not sure if it is specific to git or not. Search on google only returned pages that talks about "dump" taking the meaning trivial (which maybe is ?). My understanding of the term is that dumping would be related to "save in a file" (kind of), but that does not seem to match what is done in the tutorial.

Answer 1

"Dumping" a file, in this case, means "display its contents on stdout". It's not a technical term. Think of it like dumping a trash can, or like a memory dump. "Dump the file into an array" would, loosely, mean "read the file and put its contents into an array via some form of parsing".