From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2020 23:13:54 GMT
Subject: Re: format-patch: "magic" mbox timestamp
Message-ID: <xmqqmtzo6c0d.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAETBDP6d8UwiJEF_pX0p=xLG79pwHeEtectmOnjPiUpjUCPaqw@mail.gmail.com>

Brandon Richardson <brandon1024.br@gmail.com> writes:

> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming the "UNIX mailbox
> format" referenced in the docs refers to the mbox database format
> described in appendix A of RFC-4155. If so, since we use a commit id
> in place of the sender email address, would that itself be sufficient
> to indicate that the output isn't from a real mailbox? A commit id
> will never match the addr-spec in RFC-2822, so I figure that anyone
> looking at `format-patch` output could safely assume that it did not
> originate from a mailbox.

I vaguely recall that it was possible for the "From" line that
begins each message in a UNIX mbox had a local sender without "@",
so it would be a bit wider than addr-spec and a string of raw
hexadecimal digits would not sufficiently "strange" enough to serve
as a "magic" identifier.