[PATCH v2 5/5] last-modified: change default max-depth to 0

From: Toon Claes <toon@iotcl.com>
Date: Jan 16, 2026, 13:22 UTC
Message-ID: <20260116-toon-last-modified-zzzz-v2-5-79e44f2806fe@iotcl.com>
In-Reply-To: <20260116-toon-last-modified-zzzz-v2-0-79e44f2806fe@iotcl.com>

By default git-last-modified(1) doesn't recurse into subtrees. So when the pathspec contained a path in a subtree, the command would only print the commit information about the parent tree of the path, like:

    $ git last-modified -- path/file
    aaa0aab1bbb2bcc3ccc4ddd5dde6eee7eff8fff9	path

Change the default behavior to give commit information about the exact path instead:

    $ git last-modified -- path/file
    aaa0aab1bbb2bcc3ccc4ddd5dde6eee7eff8fff9	path/file

To achieve this, the default max-depth is changed to 0 and recursive is always enabled.

The handling of option '-r' is modified to disable a max-depth, resulting in the behavior of this option to remain unchanged.

No existing tests were modified, because there didn't exist any tests covering the example above. But more tests are added to cover this now.

Signed-off-by: Toon Claes <toon@iotcl.com>
---
 Documentation/git-last-modified.adoc |  3 ++-
 builtin/last-modified.c              | 16 +++-------------
 t/t8020-last-modified.sh             | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-last-modified.adoc b/Documentation/git-last-modified.adoc
index a3992db3f2..57136baf3b 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-last-modified.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-last-modified.adoc
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ OPTIONS
 `--recursive`::
 	Instead of showing tree entries, step into subtrees and show all entries
 	inside them recursively.
+	This is identical as setting `--max-depth=-1`.
 
 `-t`::
 `--show-trees`::
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ OPTIONS
 `--max-depth=<depth>`::
 	For each pathspec given on the command line, descend at most `<depth>`
 	levels of directories. A negative value means no limit.
-	Setting a positive value implies `--recursive`.
+	The default depth is 0.
 	Cannot be combined with wildcards in the pathspec.
 
 `-z`::
diff --git a/builtin/last-modified.c b/builtin/last-modified.c
index 842700bc6a..a10e711beb 100644
--- a/builtin/last-modified.c
+++ b/builtin/last-modified.c
@@ -481,14 +481,10 @@ static int last_modified_init(struct last_modified *lm, struct repository *r,
 	lm->rev.no_commit_id = 1;
 	lm->rev.diff = 1;
 	lm->rev.diffopt.flags.no_recursive_diff_tree_combined = 1;
-	lm->rev.diffopt.flags.recursive = lm->recursive;
+	lm->rev.diffopt.flags.recursive = 1;
 	lm->rev.diffopt.flags.tree_in_recursive = lm->show_trees;
-
-	if (lm->max_depth >= 0) {
-		lm->rev.diffopt.flags.recursive = 1;
-		lm->rev.diffopt.max_depth = lm->max_depth;
-		lm->rev.diffopt.max_depth_valid = 1;
-	}
+	lm->rev.diffopt.max_depth = lm->max_depth;
+	lm->rev.diffopt.max_depth_valid = !lm->recursive && lm->max_depth >= 0;
 
 	argc = setup_revisions(argc, argv, &lm->rev, NULL);
 	if (argc > 1) {
@@ -535,12 +531,6 @@ int cmd_last_modified(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 		OPT_END()
 	};
 
-	/*
-	 * Set the default of a max-depth to "unset". This will change in a
-	 * subsequent commit.
-	 */
-	lm.max_depth = -1;
-
 	argc = parse_options(argc, argv, prefix, last_modified_options,
 			     last_modified_usage,
 			     PARSE_OPT_KEEP_ARGV0 | PARSE_OPT_KEEP_UNKNOWN_OPT |
diff --git a/t/t8020-last-modified.sh b/t/t8020-last-modified.sh
index 50f4312f71..3944d2e153 100755
--- a/t/t8020-last-modified.sh
+++ b/t/t8020-last-modified.sh
@@ -93,6 +93,41 @@ test_expect_success 'last-modified subdir recursive' '
 	EOF
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'last-modified subdir non-recursive' '
+	check_last_modified a <<-\EOF
+	3 a
+	EOF
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'last-modified path in subdir non-recursive' '
+	check_last_modified a/file <<-\EOF
+	2 a/file
+	EOF
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'last-modified subdir with wildcard non-recursive' '
+	check_last_modified a/* <<-\EOF
+	3 a/b
+	2 a/file
+	EOF
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'last-modified with negative max-depth' '
+	check_last_modified --max-depth=-1 <<-\EOF
+	3 a/b/file
+	2 a/file
+	1 file
+	EOF
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'last-modified with max-depth of 1' '
+	check_last_modified --max-depth=1 <<-\EOF
+	3 a/b
+	2 a/file
+	1 file
+	EOF
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'last-modified from non-HEAD commit' '
 	check_last_modified HEAD^ <<-\EOF
 	2 a

-- 
2.52.0