Here's how to reproduce the problem with git version 1.6.0.2.415.g9800c0:
$ cd /tmp
$ rm -rf x
$ mkdir x
$ cd x
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/x/.git/
$ touch it
$ git commit -a --author="back\\slash <foo@bar.com>" -m "yeah"
Created initial commit 0f65eda: yeah
0 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 it
$ git log
commit 0f65eda51f33f5c56ba61f2c9dc1c5d38baec75c
Author: back\slash <foo@bar.com>
Date: Thu Oct 9 19:42:17 2008 -0700 yeah
$ gitkNow note that the author appears as "backslash", not "back\slash".
You might wonder why I have backslashes in my author names: it's because I'm using git-svn, and our Subversion setup -- which uses Windows authentication -- creates names with backslashes.
--
However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an
elf, I can tell you from personal experience it's worse to sit in your
basement and try to figure if Ginger or Mary Ann is cuter.
-- Clay Shirky