Re: [RFC/PATCH] revision.c: add --format option for 'git log'

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 22, 2009, 17:53 UTC
Message-ID: <7v63j2z7bh.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <94a0d4530902220918oc6f8ab9vc1fd0b55cad014a2@mail.gmail.com>

Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:

Show 14 quoted lines

> On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 6:49 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> --format=:foo is a shorthand for --pretty=tformat:foo, otherwise this
>>> new option acts just like --pretty=foo, except it's more intuitive for
>>> users of 'git log'.
>>
>> It's been quite a long time since the earlier discussion, but I wonder why
>> you need the colon before "foo" for this new shorthand.  I *think* you are
>> also introducing "--format=short" as a synonym to "--pretty=short", but
>> I do not think it is necessary.
>
> Well, my hope was to replace --pretty=short with --format=short, but
> you said that would break other scripts.

It is not just scripts you break. You also break people's trained fingers.

You can specify the kind of canned pretty printing with --pretty=short, and it is not any longer to type than --format. For use in scripts that you write once and forget, there is no need to even apply this patch.

The only reason why new --format=<fmt> could be an useful addition is because --pretty=format:<fmt> may be too long to type interactively.

Show 7 quoted lines

>>> As discussed in the mailing list, this is implemented as an undocumented
>>> option.
>>
>> Maybe somebody wants to document it.
>
> Ah, I would gladly add the documentation, shall I write that it's an
> 'alternative' option similar to --pretty?

I do not think we want to introduce a new way to say the same thing for the canned short options; "alternative" is not a good word for it.

Putting it in another way...

The output format is controlled by --pretty, which knows a set of canned output formats. You can specify --format=<fmt> if you want something different from any of the canned format. If your git does not support this new notation, you can say --pretty=tformat:<fmt> to get the same effect. The old --pretty=tformat:<fmt> (and --pretty=format:<fmt>) is not deprecated in any way.