Re: [PATCH v19 1/3] doc: git-format-patch: describe the option --always

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 11, 2021, 09:22 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqczm3lcma.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <0784617f-416f-a981-44e0-62bd22018d6c@gmail.com>

Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

> On 10/12/21 08.26, Aleen 徐沛文 wrote:
>> Dears Sanjaya,
>>      Thanks for your suggestion. I don't see the actual difference
>> between
>>      the two sentences, and do you want to enhance the word "always"?
>>      If you do, how about just describing the option as "Always include patches..."?
>> Aleen
>> 
>
> Semantically speaking, I choose "generate" because git format-patch **generates**
> patches from the specified commits.

But the given commit is empty and does not result in a patch at all, which is the whole point of having this option, no? A typical format-patch output message consists of the message part and the patch part, and calling an output created for an empty commit a "patch" leads to confusion, I am afraid.

So, between the two sentences, I do not see much difference either way.