From: Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 15:19:39 GMT
Subject: Re: Git log follow question
Message-ID: <AANLkTimfuINt0v_SETz9NsMGVXDL9d150B8En4TKqw3b@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1005140730030.3711@i5.linux-foundation.org>

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 10:50 AM, Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
> If we want --follow and --parent to work together, you'd need to move the
> special rename hack to be in the early phases. I'm sure it's possible. It
> might even be reasonably simple. But it's very fundamentally not what we
> do now.
...
> It would
> be nice if "gitk --follow <pathname>" worked properly, but it's just not
> something I care very much about.

Putting the internal machinery aside, it would be enormously useful
for the end user.

The Linux kernel is unusual in that there are relatively few renames /
reorgs in the mainline -- maintainers pushback and force those things
to happen before a patchset is merged. And you (as the lead
maintainer) probably know all the renames in your own project.

The use case for this is: "Where the hell does this WTF-worthy
function come from, in this WTF-esque old codebase I just inherited?"

cheers,


m
-- 
 martin.langhoff@gmail.com
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