Re: BUG:git-log --follow <path> should never trim output WRT equivalent git-log <path>

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Mar 25, 2008, 01:45 UTC
Message-ID: <20080325014504.GA15864@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <loom.20080324T161602-184@post.gmane.org>

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 04:19:01PM +0000, Santiago Gala wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> $ git log  -M -C -C --color --stat --follow -- gitk-git/po/de.po | wc -l
> 0
> sgala@marlow ~/newcode/git/git (master)$ git log  -M -C -C --color --stat --
> gitk-git/po/de.po | wc -l
> 31
> $ git --version
> git version 1.5.4.4
> 
> I find very strange that --follow makes git log to stop outputting the first
> entries.

I think the tricky thing here is that every one of those commits is a merge, which doesn't actually "introduce" any content, and that probably confuses the "--follow" code.

The thing is that getting the history of gitk-git specifically is a bit tricky. All of the commits actually happen to, e.g., the file 'gitk' in the main gitk repository, and then Junio merges it into git using a special "subtree" merge as 'gitk-git/gitk'. So looking at a path in 'gitk-git' will always just turn up merge commits; the actual commits took place on a different path.

But I haven't looked too closely at what's going on, so I may be way off base. My two cents.

-Peff