From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 17:39:17 GMT
Subject: Re: cosmetic bug: "git show --pretty:format" produces different output than "git show --format"
Message-ID: <xmqq8uh47xkq.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <54B7E98B.6020907@drmicha.warpmail.net>

Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> writes:

> Unfortunately, "--format" seems to be parsed as ("--pretty" and
> therefore?) "--pretty=tformat:" which I consider a bug.

"tformat:" was introduced to fix "format:, because many people found
the latter hard to use, probably because most of the time they
wanted to use the feature to show one-line-per-commit and a LF after
each record ("terminator semantics" where 't' in "tformat:" comes
from) made more sense in that context, compared to a LF between each
record ("delimiter semantics").

Of course, "format:" that uses the delimiter semantics has its uses;
after all, the delimiter semantics is what is used for canned
formats, other than --oneline.

It was a deliberate design decision to make "--format=<string>" as a
short-hand for "--pretty=tformat:<string>", favouring "tformat:"
over "format:", AFAIK.  To use the facility to show a break between
each (likely multi-line) record, use "--pretty=format:<string>", not
"--pretty=tformat:<string>" aka "--format=<string>".