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

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 6, 2021, 20:29 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqpmy3y5ar.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <87wnscuif9.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>

Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com> writes:

> It's nice we've reached mutual understanding!

Yes, and thanks for correcting me.

> The only remaining issue then is if we just go and do the change of -m
> semantics, or do we need to take some backward compatibility measures?
> Looks like we are rather safe to just go, as it's unlikely there will be
> any real breakage. What do you think?

I still wish I could come up with the usual backward compatibility transition dance for this case, but I do not think there is one.

However.

If "-m" were doing a more useful thing than "compare with each parent separately", people may have aliased "log -m" to something so that their "git aliased-log" and "git aliased-log -p" would work better for them than "git log" and "git log -p", but quite honestly, I do not think "git log -m -p" output is readable by humans (after all, that is why we invented -c and --cc), so the population that get hit by this incompatible change may be very tiny minority in relative terms.