Re: [PATCH] doc: add caveat about roundtripping format-patch

From: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 9, 2026, 16:42 UTC
Message-ID: <bf5d1e84-2a59-4e1b-a524-c8b251dbae70@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <format-patch_caveats.281@msgid.xyz>

Hi Kristoffer

Thanks for working on this. I've left a few comments below but I think what you have here is pretty good already.

On 08/02/2026 00:11, kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com wrote:

> From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
> 
> git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), and git-am(1) deal with

I found the mention of git-send-email here and in the documentation a bit distracting as it doesn't do any formatting itself - it just runs "git format-patch"

> † 1: There is also git-commit(1) to consider. However, making that
>       command warn or error out over such delimiters would be disruptive
>       to all Git users who never use email in their workflow.

This reference is formatted differently to the rest.

> [2]: Recently patch(1) caused this issue for a project, but it was noted
>       that git-am(1) has the same behavior[3]
> [3]: https://github.com/i3/i3/pull/6564#issuecomment-3858381425
> [4]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqldh4b5y2.fsf@gitster.g/

Show 11 quoted lines

> diff --git a/Documentation/format-patch-caveats.adoc b/Documentation/format-patch-caveats.adoc
> new file mode 100644
> index 00000000000..2accf2763fd
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/format-patch-caveats.adoc
> @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
> +Patches produced by linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
> +linkgit:git-send-email[1] are inline. This means that the output of
> +these two commands can lead to a different commit message when applied
> +with linkgit:git-am[1]. It can also mean that the patch is not applied
> +correctly.

Is this last sentence referring to diffs in the commit message being applied? I don't think there are circumstances where the patch itself is not applied correctly.

Show 15 quoted lines

> +The commit message might contain a three-dash line (`---`) which was
> +perhaps meant to be a thematic break. That means that the commit message
> +will be cut short. The presence of a line starting with "Index: " can
> +cause the patch not to be found, giving an error about an empty patch.
> +
> +Furthermore, the presence of an unindented diff in the commit message
> +will not only cut the message short but cause that very diff to be
> +applied, along with the patch in the patch section. The commit message
> +might for example have a diff in a GitHub MarkDown code fence:
> +
> +----
> +```
> +diff ...
> +```
> +----

I'm not sure the markdown really adds anything here

Show 12 quoted lines

> +The solution for this is to indent the diff instead:
> +
> +----
> +    diff ...
> +----
> +
> +This loss of fidelity might be simple to notice if you are applying
> +patches directly from a mailbox. However, a commit authored long ago
> +might be applied in a different context, perhaps because many changes
> +are being integrated via patch files and the
> +linkgit:git-format-patch[1] format is trusted to import changes of a
> +Git origin.

This last sentence lost me a bit. Is this talking about commits that have been pushed to a forge and then some downloads it as a patch? It would certainly be helpful to explain that even if you're not using an email based workflow, it is possible to be caught out by these issues.

> +One might want to use a general-purpose utility like patch(1) instead,

"Given these limitations, one might be tempted to ..."?

> +given these limitations. However, patch(1) will not only look for
> +unindented diffs (like linkgit:git-am[1]) but will try to apply indented
> +diffs as well.

This is useful context.

Thanks

Phillip

Show 76 quoted lines

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-am.adoc b/Documentation/git-am.adoc
> index 0c94776e296..18f5b950825 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-am.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-am.adoc
> @@ -259,10 +259,13 @@ message.  Any line that is of the form:
>   * a line that begins with "Index: "
>   
>   is taken as the beginning of a patch, and the commit log message
>   is terminated before the first occurrence of such a line.
>   
> +This means that the content of the commit message can inadverently
> +interrupt the processing (see the <<caveats,CAVEATS>> section below).
> +
>   When initially invoking `git am`, you give it the names of the mailboxes
>   to process.  Upon seeing the first patch that does not apply, it
>   aborts in the middle.  You can recover from this in one of two ways:
>   
>   . skip the current patch by re-running the command with the `--skip`
> @@ -281,10 +284,16 @@ Before any patches are applied, ORIG_HEAD is set to the tip of the
>   current branch.  This is useful if you have problems with multiple
>   commits, like running 'git am' on the wrong branch or an error in the
>   commits that is more easily fixed by changing the mailbox (e.g.
>   errors in the "From:" lines).
>   
> +[[caveats]]
> +CAVEATS
> +-------
> +
> +include::format-patch-caveats.adoc[]
> +
>   HOOKS
>   -----
>   This command can run `applypatch-msg`, `pre-applypatch`,
>   and `post-applypatch` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
>   information.
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc b/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc
> index 9a7807ca71a..36851aaf5e1 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc
> @@ -796,10 +796,14 @@ CAVEATS
>   Note that `format-patch` will omit merge commits from the output, even
>   if they are part of the requested range. A simple "patch" does not
>   include enough information for the receiving end to reproduce the same
>   merge commit.
>   
> +'''
> +
> +include::format-patch-caveats.adoc[]
> +
>   SEE ALSO
>   --------
>   linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1]
>   
>   GIT
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-send-email.adoc b/Documentation/git-send-email.adoc
> index ebe8853e9f5..0b118df6498 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-send-email.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-send-email.adoc
> @@ -690,10 +690,15 @@ Links of a few such community maintained helpers are:
>   	  (cross platform client that can send emails using the ProtonMail API)
>   
>   	- https://github.com/AdityaGarg8/git-credential-email[git-msgraph]
>   	  (cross platform client that can send emails using the Microsoft Graph API)
>   
> +CAVEATS
> +-------
> +
> +include::format-patch-caveats.adoc[]
> +
>   SEE ALSO
>   --------
>   linkgit:git-format-patch[1], linkgit:git-imap-send[1], mbox(5)
>   
>   GIT
> 
> base-commit: 3e0db84c88c57e70ac8be8c196dfa92c5d656fbc