[PATCH] git-shortlog.txt: improve documentation about .mailmap files
The previous .mailmap example made it seem like .mailmap files are only
useful for commits with a wrong address for an author, when they are about
fixing the real name. Explained this better in the text, and replaced the
existing example with a new one that hopefully makes things clearer.
---
Documentation/git-shortlog.txt | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
1 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt b/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt
index 7ccf31c..69e10a4 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt
@@ -48,15 +48,32 @@ OPTIONS
FILES
-----
-If the file `.mailmap` exists, it will be used for mapping author
-email addresses to a real author name. One mapping per line, first
-the author name followed by the email address enclosed by
-'<' and '>'. Use hash '#' for comments. Example:
+If a file `.mailmap` exists in the toplevel directory of the repository,
+it will be used for mapping author email addresses to a canonical real
+name. This can be used to coalesce together commits by the same person
+where their name was spelled differently (whether with the same email
+address or not).
+
+The format of the file is one mapping per line, first the desired author
+name followed by the email address enclosed by '<' and '>'. Use hash '#'
+for comments. For example, if your history contains commits by these
+committers:
+
+------------
+Author: Joe Developer <joe@random.com>
+Author: Joe R. Developer <joe@random.com>
+Author: Jane Doe <jane@the-does.name>
+Author: Jane Doe <jane@laptop.(none)>
+Author: Jane D. <jane@desktop.(none)>
+------------
+
+Then a proper `.mailmap` file would be:
------------
-# Keep alphabetized
-Adam Morrow <adam@localhost.localdomain>
-Eve Jones <eve@laptop.(none)>
+# Note how we don't need an entry for <jane@laptop.(none)>, because the
+# real name of that author is correct already, and coalesced directly.
+Jane Doe <jane@desktop.(none)>
+Joe R. Developer <joe@random.com>
------------
Author
--
1.6.1
Adeodato Simó <dato@net.com.org.es>