{"thread":{"id":"17239","subject":"meaning of --8<--","startedAt":"2009-01-18T15:56:37Z","lastAt":"2009-01-19T11:36:17Z","messageCount":5,"participants":["Markus Heidelberg","Peter Harris","Jay Soffian","Jeff King","Samuel Tardieu"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"101010","messageId":"200901181656.37813.markus.heidelberg@web.de","threadId":"17239","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"meaning of --8<--","fromName":"Markus Heidelberg","fromEmail":"markus.heidelberg@web.de","sentAt":"2009-01-18T15:56:37Z","receivedAt":"2009-01-18T15:56:37Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"markus.heidelberg@web.de","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/6334512?v=4"},"body":"Hi,\n\nI've seen lines like \"--8<--\" several times on this list, but have no\nclue what it is about. OK, seems like it's used to insert diffs in the\nmiddle of a mail message.\nBut is this a common convention or git specific and handled by git-am?\nIs it documented anywhere?\n\nMarkus\n"},{"id":"101011","messageId":"eaa105840901180804k64a745f9q1a092fe3915db868@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"17239","inReplyTo":"200901181656.37813.markus.heidelberg@web.de","subject":"Re: meaning of --8<--","fromName":"Peter Harris","fromEmail":"git@peter.is-a-geek.org","sentAt":"2009-01-18T16:04:37Z","receivedAt":"2009-01-18T16:04:37Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"git@peter.is-a-geek.org","avatar":null},"body":"On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Markus Heidelberg wrote:\n> I've seen lines like \"--8<--\" several times on this list, but have no\n> clue what it is about. OK, seems like it's used to insert diffs in the\n> middle of a mail message.\n> But is this a common convention or git specific and handled by git-am?\n> Is it documented anywhere?\n\nCommon convention, meaning 'cut here'.\n\nPerforated line ------\nScissors 8<\n\nAlso used in print (although usually with picture of scissors instead\nof the ASCII-art).\n\nPeter Harris\n"},{"id":"101013","messageId":"76718490901180813h4c226dadi87731ef3f46086bb@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"17239","inReplyTo":"200901181656.37813.markus.heidelberg@web.de","subject":"Re: meaning of --8<--","fromName":"Jay Soffian","fromEmail":"jaysoffian@gmail.com","sentAt":"2009-01-18T16:13:59Z","receivedAt":"2009-01-18T16:13:59Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"jaysoffian@gmail.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/155970?v=4"},"body":"On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Markus Heidelberg\n wrote:\n> Hi,\n>\n> I've seen lines like \"--8<--\" several times on this list, but have no\n> clue what it is about.\n\nIt is supposed to represent a pair of scissors. Sometimes it is the\nother direction: >8. And I've seen folks botch it as: <8 or 8>. This\nlist is the first (and maybe only?) place I've seen it. Typically you\nmight see:\n\n--snip--\n\nor\n\n--cut--\n\n> But is this a common convention or git specific and handled by git-am?\n\nSeems to be a convention of this list, and git-am does nothing with it afaik.\n\nj.\n"},{"id":"101028","messageId":"20090118174444.GB17055@coredump.intra.peff.net","threadId":"17239","inReplyTo":"200901181656.37813.markus.heidelberg@web.de","subject":"Re: meaning of --8<--","fromName":"Jeff King","fromEmail":"peff@peff.net","sentAt":"2009-01-18T17:44:44Z","receivedAt":"2009-01-18T17:44:44Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"peff@peff.net","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/45925?v=4"},"body":"On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 04:56:37PM +0100, Markus Heidelberg wrote:\n\n> I've seen lines like \"--8<--\" several times on this list, but have no\n> clue what it is about. OK, seems like it's used to insert diffs in the\n> middle of a mail message.\n> But is this a common convention or git specific and handled by git-am?\n> Is it documented anywhere?\n\nAs others have explained, it is supposed to be scissors, and it is not\nhandled by git-am. But the real point of it is to help the person\napplying (e.g., Junio) manually separate cover letter from the commit\nmessage. So one way of sending cover material is putting it after the\n\"---\" and before the diff:\n\n Subject: [PATCH] first line of commit message\n\n more commit message\n ---\n Here is cover letter material that doesn't go in the commit message.\n It is stripped automatically by git-am.\n\n diff --git ...\n\nbut that is often unnatural to read, because the cover letter material\noften introduces the commit, especially when you are replying in the\nmiddle of a thread. So then you end up with:\n\n Subject: Re: whatever thread you're in\n\n Somebody else said:\n > blah blah blah\n\n I disagree. You should do it like this instead:\n\n -- >8 --\n first line of commit message\n\n more commit message\n ---\n\n diff --git ...\n\ngit-am will put everything down to the \"---\" into the commit message,\nbut it is simple enough to amend away everything else.\n\nSo in that sense, it doesn't really matter _what_ the separator is, but\nit should be visibly obvious to a human so that they can fix up the\ncommit message. The only exception is that it should _not_ be \"---\",\nbecause that is treated specially by git-am.\n\n-Peff\n"},{"id":"101122","messageId":"2009-01-19-12-36-17+trackit+sam@rfc1149.net","threadId":"17239","inReplyTo":"eaa105840901180804k64a745f9q1a092fe3915db868@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: meaning of --8<--","fromName":"Samuel Tardieu","fromEmail":"sam@rfc1149.net","sentAt":"2009-01-19T11:36:17Z","receivedAt":"2009-01-19T11:36:17Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"sam@rfc1149.net","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/44656?v=4"},"body":">>>>> \"Peter\" == Peter Harris writes:\n\nPeter> Scissors 8<\n\nOne can also use the Unicode character 0x2702: ✂ \n\n Sam\n-- \nSamuel Tardieu -- sam@rfc1149.net -- http://www.rfc1149.net/\n"}]}