Re: [PATCH] Documentation: explain "mboxrd" pretty format

From: Emma Brooks <me@pluvano.com>
Date: Apr 17, 2020, 01:47 UTC
Message-ID: <20200417014713.GA20574@pluvano.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqlfmw2f9z.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>

On 2020-04-15 22:03:36-0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> > +Like 'email', but lines in the commit message starting with "From "
> > +(preceded by zero or more ">") are quoted with ">" so they aren't
> > +confused as starting a new commit.
> 
> I am torn between rephrasing "starting a new commit" with "starting
> a new e-mail message", and keeping it as-is.  Technically, the latter
> is more correct---the >From quoting is a technique to avoid starting
> a line with "From " in a reversible way, as pieces of e-mails in a
> single mailbox file needs to be split at the boundary.  But in the
> context of format-patch, perhaps saying each "record" in the output
> file is a "commit" (not a piece of e-mail message) would probably be
> an acceptable white lie.

While it is more accurate to say "starting a new email" rather than "commit", I think it might be less confusing to say "starting a new commit", if the reader isn't already familiar with how mbox works or its variants, since the pretty formats control commit display and would typically be thought about in terms of commits rather than emails.