[PATCH v2 3/5] doc: gitbreaking-changes: replace msg-ids with URLs

From: kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Date: Oct 8, 2026, 19:27 UTC
Message-ID: <V2_URLs_not_just_msg_ids.dc7@m5gid.xyz>
In-Reply-To: <V2_CV_gitbrchanges7_please.dc4@m5gid.xyz>

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>

This document has used msg-ids to reference emails since its inception.[1] This makes the text a bit more terse, and is perhaps also convenient for people who can use msg-ids to link to messages in their inbox. But we should consider how convenient this is for people in general, now that this is a more public-facing page (see previous commit). And I suspect that most people will be forced to paste the msg-id according to the described URL template:

    https://lore.kernel.org/git/$message_id/

Let’s instead replace all of the msg-ids with complete links. That way everyone can jump right to the discussions.

† 1: 57ec9254 (docs: introduce document to announce breaking changes, 2024-06-14)

Note that we have to URL encode this msg-id:

     CAKvOHKAFXQwt4D8yUCCkf_TQL79mYaJ=KAKhtpDNTvHJFuX1NA@mail.gmail.com

Lore can handle it just fine, but asciidoctor(1) cannot.

Worse yet, this msg-id can be handled by asciidoctor(1) but not by asciidoc:

     CA+EOSBncr=4a4d8n9xS4FNehyebpmX8JiUwCsXD47EQDE+DiUQ@mail.gmail.com

URL encoding does not help. So compromise by linking to the only second-level reply:

    CACBZZX65Kbp8N9X9UtBfJca7U1T0m-VtKZeKM5q9mhyCR7dwGg@mail.gmail.com

Which properly quotes the first message. So no loss of fidelity in my opinion.

Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
---

Notes (series):
    v2:
    • Fix accidental introduction of two spaces[1]
      🔗 1: https://lore.kernel.org/git/ar0OltAkeTiCx81c@pks.im/#t
    • Fix two other unintended space changes. I don’t know why the URLs
      after [1] are aligned like that. But it makes no difference to the
      output. So leave them alone.
      [1]: Cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/2f5de416-04ba-c23d-1e0b-83bb655829a7@zombino.com,
    • Changing the linking scheme so that the links could use the
      msg-ids as text was discussed. But technical difficulties and
      other concerns lead to no changes on this front.[2]
      † 2: <xmqqeceaa5h9.fsf@gitster.g>
    • ... but, and bad news for my linking scheme: I found out that
      asciidoc(1) (shakes fist) cannot seem to manage to render this URL
      as a URL:
    
          https://lore.kernel.org/git/CA%2BEOSBncr%3D4a4d8n9xS4FNehyebpmX8JiUwCsXD47EQDE%2BDiUQ@mail.gmail.com/
    
      And, well see the commit message.

 Documentation/gitbreaking-changes.adoc | 33 +++++++++++++-------------
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitbreaking-changes.adoc b/Documentation/gitbreaking-changes.adoc
index c6b974b6d8c..2bb9f877256 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitbreaking-changes.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/gitbreaking-changes.adoc
@@ -59,15 +59,14 @@ make the described change that can be easily understood without having to read
 the mailing list discussions. If there are alternatives to the changed feature,
 those alternatives should be pointed out to our users.
 
-All items should be accompanied by references to relevant mailing list threads
-where the deprecation was discussed. These references use message-IDs, which
-can visited via
+All items should be accompanied by links to relevant mailing list threads
+where the deprecation was discussed. These links use this format:
 
   https://lore.kernel.org/git/$message_id/
 
-to see the message and its surrounding discussion. Such a reference is there to
-make it easier for you to find how the project reached consensus on the
-described item back then.
+I.e. they link to the `Message-ID` of the email on the mailing
+list. These references are there to make it easier for you to find how
+the project reached consensus on the described item back then.
 
 This is a living document as the environment surrounding the project changes
 over time. If circumstances change, an earlier decision to deprecate or change
@@ -129,9 +128,9 @@ applications and forges.
 +
 There is no plan to deprecate the "sha1" object format at this point in time.
 +
-Cf. <2f5de416-04ba-c23d-1e0b-83bb655829a7@zombino.com>,
-<20170223155046.e7nxivfwqqoprsqj@LykOS.localdomain>,
-<CA+EOSBncr=4a4d8n9xS4FNehyebpmX8JiUwCsXD47EQDE+DiUQ@mail.gmail.com>.
+Cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/2f5de416-04ba-c23d-1e0b-83bb655829a7@zombino.com,
+https://lore.kernel.org/git/20170223155046.e7nxivfwqqoprsqj@LykOS.localdomain,
+https://lore.kernel.org/git/CACBZZX65Kbp8N9X9UtBfJca7U1T0m-VtKZeKM5q9mhyCR7dwGg@mail.gmail.com.
 
 * The default storage format for references in newly created repositories will
   be changed from "files" to "reftable". The "reftable" format provides
@@ -268,7 +267,7 @@ system configuration.
 The grafting mechanism has been marked as outdated since e650d0643b (docs: mark
 info/grafts as outdated, 2014-03-05) and will be removed.
 +
-Cf. <20140304174806.GA11561@sigill.intra.peff.net>.
+Cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/20140304174806.GA11561@sigill.intra.peff.net.
 
 * The git-pack-redundant(1) command can be used to remove redundant pack files.
   The subcommand is unusably slow and the reason why nobody reports it as a
@@ -286,9 +285,9 @@ the user passes the `--i-still-use-this` option.
 There have not been any subsequent complaints, so this command will finally be
 removed.
 +
-Cf. <xmqq1rjuz6n3.fsf_-_@gitster.c.googlers.com>,
-    <CAKvOHKAFXQwt4D8yUCCkf_TQL79mYaJ=KAKhtpDNTvHJFuX1NA@mail.gmail.com>,
-    <20230323204047.GA9290@coredump.intra.peff.net>,
+Cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqq1rjuz6n3.fsf_-_@gitster.c.googlers.com,
+https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAKvOHKAFXQwt4D8yUCCkf_TQL79mYaJ%3DKAKhtpDNTvHJFuX1NA%40mail.gmail.com,
+https://lore.kernel.org/git/20230323204047.GA9290@coredump.intra.peff.net,
 
 * Support for storing shorthands for remote URLs in "$GIT_COMMON_DIR/branches/"
   and "$GIT_COMMON_DIR/remotes/" has been long superseded by storing remotes in
@@ -332,7 +331,7 @@ The command will be removed.
 * Support for `core.commentString=auto` has been deprecated and will
   be removed in Git 3.0.
 +
-cf. <xmqqa59i45wc.fsf@gitster.g>
+cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqa59i45wc.fsf@gitster.g
 
 * Support for `core.preferSymlinkRefs=true` has been deprecated and will be
   removed in Git 3.0. Writing symbolic refs as symbolic links will be phased
@@ -369,9 +368,9 @@ those features with newer alternatives.
 This decision may get revisited in case we ever figure out that there are
 almost no users of any of the commands anymore.
 +
-Cf. <xmqqttjazwwa.fsf@gitster.g>,
-<xmqqleeubork.fsf@gitster.g>,
-<112b6568912a6de6672bf5592c3a718e@manjaro.org>.
+Cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqttjazwwa.fsf@gitster.g,
+    https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqleeubork.fsf@gitster.g,
+    https://lore.kernel.org/git/112b6568912a6de6672bf5592c3a718e@manjaro.org.
 
 GIT
 ---

-- 
2.55.0.793.gc667de3f2c5