Re: Bugreport: git log -L

From: Tim Tassonis <stuff@decentral.ch>
Date: Sep 21, 2026, 18:04 UTC
Message-ID: <b6600538-afdd-4402-ad2c-2a5380b6c0cd@decentral.ch>
In-Reply-To: <41c54b809eb1490fb467ba0fd4c5a8cf@yadro.com>

On 9/21/26 09:45, Nikita Makarov wrote:

Show 35 quoted lines

> Hello, I have the found the strange behavior of "git log -L" command with python function.
> It is counting a blank line that sits after a function's last statement as part of that function.
> This happens only when the function is at the end of a file.
> 
> The way to reproduce that
> 
> git init repro && cd repro
> git config user.email t@t && git config user.name t
> 
> printf 'def foo():\n    return 1\n\n' > bug.py
> git add bug.py && git commit -qm c1
> 
> printf 'def foo():\n    return 1\n' > bug.py
> git add bug.py && git commit -qm c2
> 
> Then do
> 
> git log -L :'foo':bug.py
> 
> And you'll see
> 
> Author: t <t@t>
> Date:   Fri Sep 18 18:21:10 2026 +0300
> 
>      c2
> 
> diff --git a/bug.py b/bug.py
> --- a/bug.py
> +++ b/bug.py
> @@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
>   def foo():
>       return 1
> +
> 
> Though I expect that commit "c2" should never appear in log, since the changes from it doesn't affect the functions body at all.

 From git log --help
...
If :<funcname> is given in place of <start> and <end>, it is a
regular expression that denotes the range from the first funcname
line that matches <funcname>, up to the next funcname line.
:<funcname> searches from the end of the previous -L range, if any,
otherwise from the start of file.  ^:<funcname> searches from the
start of file. The function names are determined in the same way as
git diff works out patch hunk headers (see Defining a custom
hunk-header in gitattributes(5)).
..

So, the bug is rather the expectation that such a thing can reliably know what a function is, regardless of coding style and language used.

To quote the late and great Christopher Tolkien: This could only be achieved. if at all, at heavy and needless cost.

Bye>

Show 15 quoted lines

> [System Info]
> git version:
> git version 2.43.0
> cpu: x86_64
> no commit associated with this build
> sizeof-long: 8
> sizeof-size_t: 8
> shell-path: /bin/sh
> uname: Linux 7.0.0-31-generic #31~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Aug 10 09:38:02 UTC 2 x86_64
> compiler info: gnuc: 13.3
> libc info: glibc: 2.39
> $SHELL (typically, interactive shell): /bin/bash
> 
> 
> [Enabled Hooks]

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