Re: git-commit: allow From: line to be entered in commit message

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Jan 13, 2006, 19:51 UTC
Message-ID: <7vy81j6h56.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <BAYC1-PASMTP0918AE856AD34E35597CA4AE260@CEZ.ICE>

sean <seanlkml@sympatico.ca> writes:

> So do you still agree with that, would you accept a patch?  Or do you have
> some fundamental reason to think that environment variables are a better
> way to pass information in this case?

Fundamental reason of not doing anything is (1) not to make unnecessary changes and (1) to avoidi decisions ;-).

No objections to --from='John Doe <john.doe@example.com>' by itself, other than "You could say GIT_AUTHOR_* before the command instead of --from after the command; as long as it is not done regularly as an interactive command, the difference does not matter". At that point, "making no unneeded changes" kicks in. While I do understand that it might be necessary to commit somebody else's patch occasionally, you have not convinced me that is not such a rare thing, so until then the change stays at lower priority.

After I am convinced that it is not so rare and having an easier and more consistent way (something coming from environment and other things from command line is inconsistent) would generally be a good addition, I further need to think about these issues before taking such a patch, in the context of the "git commit" command as a whole:

 - Is --from the right word?  Shouldn't it be --author?
 - Do we want author date?  If not, why not?
 - What about committer information?  If not, why not?