git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

If the initial commit is empty, it is not shown in "git log --simplify-by-decoration"

From
MKMatthew Timothy Kennerly <mtkennerly@gmail.com>
Date
Apr 16, 2021, 23:58 UTC
Message-ID
<CAKqNo6TFudrXnuPzQcOaVQrRpq_0K_fxyyMA5god-WQL7y=RcQ@mail.gmail.com>
Hello,

This seems like a bug to me, but maybe there's a good reason for it. I reproduced it using Git 2.27.0 on Windows initially, and then I upgraded to 2.31.1 to confirm that it was still present.

After committing with "--allow-empty", the initial commit is not shown in "git log --simplify-by-decoration", although it is shown with "git log". I would have expected it to be shown in both cases:

--- $ git init Initialized empty Git repository in C:/tmp/repro/.git/

$ git commit --allow-empty -m init [master (root-commit) bc54978] init

$ git log --simplify-by-decoration
$ git log
commit d7814029effeb7e824e480ca52e30f5a9d1e8058 (HEAD -> master)
Author: mtkennerly <mtkennerly@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri Apr 16 19:48:06 2021 -0400
    init
---

However, if the first commit is not empty, then it is shown with or without "--simplify-by-decoration", as expected:

--- $ git init Initialized empty Git repository in C:/tmp/repro2/.git/

$ echo hi > foo.txt
$ git add .
$ git commit -m init
[master (root-commit) 35b6427] init
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 foo.txt
$ git log --simplify-by-decoration
commit 35b6427461fe48c0e918dfea2bc5ddab9dc8844d (HEAD -> master)
Author: mtkennerly <mtkennerly@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri Apr 16 19:51:06 2021 -0400
    init
$ git log
commit 35b6427461fe48c0e918dfea2bc5ddab9dc8844d (HEAD -> master)
Author: mtkennerly <mtkennerly@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri Apr 16 19:51:06 2021 -0400
    init
---

For context, this was reported to me on GitHub here: https://github.com/mtkennerly/dunamai/issues/14

Regards,
MTK
Next: Bagas Sanjaya
Message 1 of 2 in “If the initial commit is empty, it is not shown in "git log --simplify-by-decoration"”
  1. Matthew Timothy KennerlyApr 16, 2021
  2. Bagas SanjayaApr 18, 2021

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.