# log -S with evil merges

3 messages from 2010-07-10 to 2010-07-12. Participants: Jonathan Nieder, Junio C Hamano.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/24359

## Jonathan Nieder, 2010-07-10 19:48

Subject: log -S with evil merges
Message-ID: <20100710194838.GA2315@burratino>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20100710194838.GA2315%40burratino

```
Hi,

I was interested to know the origin of the UE_ALWAYS et al flags in
builtin/reflog.c, so I asked git:

 ; git log --oneline -S'UE_ALWAYS' --follow builtin/reflog.c
 81b50f3 Move 'builtin-*' into a 'builtin/' subdirectory
 4264dc1 git reflog expire

Ok, clearly it was not introduced in the builtin/ move.  I guess the
UE_ flags were part of the original ‘reflog’ implementation.  Right?

 ; git show 4264dc1 | grep UE_ALWAYS
 ; git show 4264dc1:builtin-reflog.c | grep UE_ALWAYS
 ;

No, that’s not it.  At this point I decided -S is broken and just did
a grep through log -p, to find that apparently this symbol was
introduced in builtin-reflog.c with v1.7.2-rc0~122^2 (reflog
--expire-unreachable: special case entries in "HEAD" reflog,
2010-04-09).

So why is log confused?  As far as log -S knows, because of the
builtin/ move, commit v1.7.2-rc0~122 was an evil merge that produced
the UE_ flags in builtin/reflog.c out of thin air.  It should be
blaming that commit, then.  With a little coaxing, it does.

 ; git log --format=oneline \
	--first-parent -m -S'UE_ALWAYS' --follow builtin/reflog.c |
   git name-rev --tags --stdin |
   cut -d' ' -f2-
 (tags/v1.7.2-rc0~122) Merge branch 'jc/maint-no-reflog-expire-unreach-for-head'
 (tags/v1.7.1-rc0~76) Merge branch 'lt/deepen-builtin-source'
 (tags/v1.5.0-rc1~188) Merge branch 'jc/fsck-reflog'
 ;

The first is the culprit, the second and third the file’s renaming and
introduction[1].

The more logical

 ; git log --oneline -c -S'UE_ALWAYS' --follow builtin/reflog.c

does not work --- it mentions _all_ merges.  Why?

[1] I don’t know why ‘log -S --follow’ should feel the need to point
these out, but that’s a different story.

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2010-07-12 06:12

Subject: Re: log -S with evil merges
Message-ID: <7v39vpfcte.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7v39vpfcte.fsf%40alter.siamese.dyndns.org
In-Reply-To: <20100710194838.GA2315@burratino>

```
Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

> The more logical
>
>  ; git log --oneline -c -S'UE_ALWAYS' --follow builtin/reflog.c
>
> does not work --- it mentions _all_ merges.  Why?

I don't think --follow, which is merely a checkbox item, is friendly to
most other git features.  Does it even show diff with the corresponding
file at the commit where filename is changed?

```

## Jonathan Nieder, 2010-07-12 06:39

Subject: Re: log -S with evil merges
Message-ID: <20100712063949.GA6301@burratino>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20100712063949.GA6301%40burratino
In-Reply-To: <7v39vpfcte.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

```
Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

>>  ; git log --oneline -c -S'UE_ALWAYS' --follow builtin/reflog.c
>>
>> does not work --- it mentions _all_ merges.  Why?
>
> I don't think --follow, which is merely a checkbox item, is friendly to
> most other git features.

Hmm, leaving out the --follow makes it behave again.  Thanks for the tip.

> Does it even show diff with the corresponding
> file at the commit where filename is changed?

 $ git tag lt/deepen-builtin-source 81b50f3
 $ git diff --raw --follow lt/deepen-builtin-source^! -- builtin/reflog.c
 :100644 100644 7498210... 7498210... R100	builtin-reflog.c	builtin/reflog.c
 $ git diff-tree --abbrev -c --follow v1.7.2-rc0~122 -- builtin/reflog.c
 a660534e06147f8867d6c9b6c41025427a7b5c6c
 ::100644 100644 100644 f732156... fafb740... ebf610e... MR      builtin/reflog.c

Looks good to me...

```