threads / discuss / 14001

"git log -5 --follow" returns too few commits

Subject: "git log -5 --follow" returns too few commits

## tl;dr

One message between Jun 17, 2008 and Jun 17, 2008.

replies: 0people: 1as markdown or json

Andy Neitzke· Jun 17, 2008, 11:21 UTC · lore

Hi,

Using either git 1.5.5.4 or the current master, on my system the command

git log -5 --follow some-file

often returns fewer than 5 commits, even when

git log --follow some-file

returns more than 5. This behavior occurs even for some files which have never been renamed. Is this a bug, or is this the expected behavior for some reason?

Best wishes and thanks,

-Andy

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.