From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 23:06:08 GMT
Subject: Re: One question about git-format-patch
Message-ID: <CAPc5daW6ohYxJP0eyfW0DT_Q-E8v0quweRBwJCAZOVrEMWchjA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <804161F448B352478D7503429A0B7F27CA94AC@ex10-mbx-36002.ant.amazon.com>

> I’m a git user, and recently I’ve noticed there’re some differences between
> “$ git format-patch –n” and “$ git format-patch HEAD~n”. According to the
> documentation: “-<n> Prepare patches from the topmost <n> commits.”

Correct.  However, HEAD~n will prepare patches for commits that are
not ancestor of HEAD~n.

And there may well be a lot more than n such commits, unless you are
working on a strictly linear history.