Re: [PATCH] Documentation: Mention `Date: ` in git-am

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 4, 2020, 03:33 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqblrjdhek.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <6ffcb6c0-d09e-45c4-d264-8a9024b67f3c@molgen.mpg.de>

Paul Menzel <pmenzel@molgen.mpg.de> writes:

> Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation: Mention `Date: ` in git-am

The technical term to refer to these From/Subject/Date override is "in-body header", and using it would make it easier to tell what the commit is about when this appears in "git shortlog" output. Perhaps

	am: document that Date: can appear as an in-body header

> Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2020 12:48:46 +0100

When the general public sees the patch for the first time is when the patch is authored as far as the participants of this list are concerned.

Please don't lie about the author date on this list.

Show 21 quoted lines

> Tested, that a line `Date: ` in the message body will be preferred by
> `git am` over the one in the message header. So, update the
> documentation.
>
> Signed-off-by: Paul Menzel <pmenzel@molgen.mpg.de>
> ---
>  Documentation/git-am.txt | 4 ++--
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-am.txt b/Documentation/git-am.txt
> index fc5750b3b8..11ca61b00b 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-am.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-am.txt
> @@ -190,8 +190,8 @@ the commit, after stripping common prefix "[PATCH <anything>]".
>  The "Subject: " line is supposed to concisely describe what the
>  commit is about in one line of text.
>  
> -"From: " and "Subject: " lines starting the body override the respective
> -commit author name and title values taken from the headers.
> +"From: ", "Date: ", and "Subject: " lines starting the body override the
> +respective commit author name and title values taken from the headers.

Correct. It would be a good idea to fix "will be preferred" in the proposed log message to match this by reusing the verb "override". Perhaps like

	Similar to "From:" and "Subject:" already mentioned in the
	documentation, "Date:" can also appear as an in-body header
	to override the value in the e-mail headers.  Document it.

>  The commit message is formed by the title taken from the
>  "Subject: ", a blank line and the body of the message up to