Re: Why doesn't `git log -m` imply `-p`?

From: Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com>
Date: May 4, 2021, 14:18 UTC
Message-ID: <87r1imbmzz.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqbl9q7jxf.fsf@gitster.g>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> That said, what do we decide about -m to finally join -c/--cc party and
>> start to imply -p? Last time we've discussed it, we decided that -m has
>> been simply overlooked when -c/--cc started to imply -p. Should we
>> finally fix this?
>
> I thought I already said this, but in case I didn't, I think
> "--diff-merges=separate" should imply "some kind of diff", and not
> necessarily "-p".

Is this a more polite way to say "no"? If not, how is it relevant for -m, now being a synonym for --diff-merges=on?

As for particular idea, I'll repeat myself as well and say that I'm still against implying anything by any off --diff-merges, and even more against implying something that affects non-merge commits. --diff-merges are not convenience options that need to be short yet give specific functionality, so there is no place for additional implications.

That said, I think that something like your idea could be fine if we introduce another convenience option, say, -d, that will imply both --diff-merges=separate and "some kind of diff" (whatever the latter actually means, I'm not sure yet.) But then again, why don't just reuse -m that, as we've decided before, is not that useful in its current state anyway?

I must admit that I don't entirely understand your idea above yet. Maybe you could provide a draft of manual entry for proposed behavior of --diff-merges=separate, for better understanding? For convenience, right now it reads:

   --diff-merges=separate
       This makes merge commits show the full diff with respect to
       each of the parents. Separate log entry and diff is generated
       for each parent.

Thanks,

-- Sergey Organov