Re: Why doesn't `git log -m` imply `-p`?

Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com> writes:

I misspoke without thinking it through. It is absolutely wrong for the "-m" option (or "--diff-merges=m" for that matter) to imply "-p".

$ git log --stat --summary

would show "diff", but the kind of "diff" requested is not a textual patch but just diffstat and the summary of new/removed files, and the "diff" is shown only for single-parent commits, and it omits "diff" for merge commits. Adding "-m" to this command line is *not* a request to show the textual patch. It is to ask "diff" to be shown pairwise with each of the parent.

$ git log -m --stat --summary

It is probably OK to special case "-m" given alone without any other option [*1*] that specifies what kind of "diff" is requested and make it imply "-p". But unconditionally flipping "-p" on only because you saw "-m" (or "--diff-merges=m" for that matter) is just wrong.

[Footnote]

*1* They are not limited to "-p", "--stat" and "--summary", but you'd need to also pay attention to "--raw", "--name-only", etc.)