Re: [PATCH] describe-doc:fix a obscure error description in the git log documentation

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 31, 2021, 06:57 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqmtsbv19u.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <YLSGasYc4wVoOfYt@danh.dev>

Đoàn Trần Công Danh  <congdanhqx@gmail.com> writes:

> Please use your real name and wrap your commit message at 50
> characters for subject line and 72 characters for body.

Very good suggestions.  Thanks for raising these issues.

Show 12 quoted lines

> The default option is documented correctly as short.
> Please check out builtin/log.c:decorate_callback and
> builtin/log.c:parse_decoration_style.
>
> Below command print nothing in my machine:
>
> 	git log --decorate -1 >/tmp/default
> 	git log --decorate=short -1 >/tmp/short
> 	cmp /tmp/default /tmp/short
>
> I'm curious about your config and/or command invocation.
> From the code, I can't guess which scenario that's different.

You two are thinking about two "defaults", I think. If a --decorate option you give does not say which kind of decoration you want, by default, you see the short output. The above shows that.

If you do not give any --decorate option, the command behaves as if you gave --decorate=auto, which is what the patch author wanted to say, I think.

> I think you meant:
>
> 	git log -1 >/tmp/no-decorate

Yes, and this (with redirection to file), I think you do not get any decoration---that is what you get from --decorate=auto, i.e.

	git log --decorate=auto -1 >/tmp/auto-decorate

I think the default discussed in the paragraph the patch touches is "what happens if you do not say what kind, i.e. "--decorate" not "--decorate=<what kind>", so "the default is 'short'" is correct, but at the same time, "even if you do not say --decorate, you'll see short decoration when on a terminal" is worth mentioning somewhere.