Re: [PATCH] Add --pretty=changelog

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Mar 2, 2007, 14:09 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0703021419520.22628@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>
In-Reply-To: <87hct4roqa.fsf@latte.josefsson.org>

Hi,

On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, Simon Josefsson wrote:

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> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
> 
> > I saw that in your mail already, and I find the style cvs2cl outputs 
> > ugly.
> 
> Well, if you don't follow the GNU ChangeLog format, then please call it 
> something else.  The format is well documented.

Well, it is still ugly. I mean, really ugly. Like in "it's easier to script, therefore I don't fix it" ugly.

And yes, the format is well documented. For example, it includes the function names in brackets, which both my patch and cvs2cl do not do. These function names actually got me interested, and I would have tried to generate them automatically, too.

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> > No charset problem. In Git commit messages, the first line is special. 
> > It is the so called "oneline" description. If you wrap the oneline, 
> > it's your fault, not Git's.
> 
> But I want more than the oneline comment in the ChangeLog?  There is no 
> size limit on ChangeLog messages, and having as much information as 
> possible available is better.

With Git, it is encouraged that you write useful commit messages. There are commits where the patch consists of just a line change, and the message of a really long text. For a good example, look at commit v1.4.0-rc1~50: the commit message has 49 lines of text, but the patch only changes 5 lines.

If you are serious about "having as much information", include the _complete_ commit message.

> Anyway, for now I'll be settling with the (just announced) git2cl since 
> it gives me the most flexibility.

In hindsight I agree with Junio that a script is better for this purpose. At least I tricked you into writing it yourself.

> If/when git core includes your patch later on, and some of my pet 
> problems are fixed, and my distribution catches up, I'll be back.

FWIW I am now opposed to inclusion of --pretty=gnucl.

Ciao, Dscho