Re: [RFC PATCH] format-patch: better commit list for cover letter

> On Fri, Feb 20, 2026 at 08:54:50PM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>>  (1) Drop the abbreviated object name, as they are useless garbage.
>>      The result of applying these patches will not have these commit
>>      object names anyway, so even when people find these messages on
>>      a mail archive in 6 months, they will not find the result of
>>      applying the patches from the official project history with
>>      these object names.
>
> Should there be a reference to the author ident instead of the object
> name then? A quick glance on who worked on what before diving into the
> patches themselves might be useful.
>
>>  (2) Do we need to make this optional, in order to allow those users
>>      who do prefer the current "shortlog" style that groups patches
>>      from the same person together to keep the original style?  I am
>>      undecided myself.
>
> Maybe the "--cover-letter" option can take an argument like
> "--cover-letter=<shortlog | commitlist>". Although I doubt there's
> anyone that actually likes the shortlog version, it gives very little
> information. I'm inclined to think that most leave it there because they
> think it must be somewhat since it is the default, tho this is just my
> assumption.