Re: rev-list --parents --full-history + path: something's fishy

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: May 25, 2008, 01:21 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.1.10.0805241817500.3081@woody.linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <1211660214.483877b69a107@webmail.nextra.at>

On Sat, 24 May 2008, Johannes Sixt wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> 
> but this does not:
> 
> $ git rev-list --full-history --parents HEAD -- a
> M A B
> B A
> A

That is the "correct" output.

That's what "--full-history" means: do not simplify merges away when all the data comes from just one branch (in this case from "B").

So it shows you commit 'M' because you asked for full-history.

Commit 'M' has parents 'C' and 'B', but since 'C' doesn't actually modify the file at all, the regular commit simplification will simplify 'C' away, so now that parent 'C' will become 'A'. So 'M' has the _simplified_ parent's 'A' and 'B'.

Then it shows 'B' (parent 'A') and 'A' (no parent).

Show 5 quoted lines

> Of course, I'd expected to see this:
> 
> $ git rev-list --full-history --parents HEAD -- a
> B A
> A

Why did you ask for --full-history, if you're not interested in merges that are irrelevant? To get what you wanted, just do

	git rev-list --parents HEAD -- a

and it should give you exactly that output.

		Linus