# git annotate with date option not working?

9 messages from 2011-06-01 to 2011-06-01. Participants: Chengwei Ding, Jakub Narebski, Arnaud Lacurie, Jeff King, Jonathan Nieder.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/27518

## Chengwei Ding, 2011-06-01 08:20

Subject: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <4DE5F655.9020400@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4DE5F655.9020400%40gmail.com

```
hello,

can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git annotate 
cmd.

i tried the same option on blame cmd which seems to be working, but not 
on the annotate which i use git annotate --date=relative or i wrote date 
config variable as blame.date which again work for blame but not 
annotate, but document says it should share same variable.

my env:
ubuntu 11.04 64
git ppa source 1.7.5.2

Regards

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2011-06-01 09:40

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <m3aae1yjnm.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/m3aae1yjnm.fsf%40localhost.localdomain
In-Reply-To: <4DE5F655.9020400@gmail.com>

```
Chengwei Ding <waterding@gmail.com> writes:

> can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git
> annotate cmd.
> 
> i tried the same option on blame cmd which seems to be working, but
> not on the annotate which i use git annotate --date=relative or i
> wrote date config variable as blame.date which again work for blame
> but not annotate, but document says it should share same variable.

"git annotate" is left for backwards compatibility, so it might be
that not all git-blame switches work correctly with it.  

Does "git blame -c --date=relative" work?

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git

```

## Arnaud Lacurie, 2011-06-01 09:41

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <BANLkTik2bTqScNLRwRwdz3h=cPJJxX6v2Q@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/BANLkTik2bTqScNLRwRwdz3h%3DcPJJxX6v2Q%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <4DE5F655.9020400@gmail.com>

```
Hi,

> can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git annotate
> cmd.

I tried 'git annotate --date=relative <onefile>' and it works perfectly here.
git version 1.7.4.1
ubuntu 11.04

It works also well on the git version 1.7.5.3.401.gfb674 (The latest on master)

Regards

-- 
Arnaud Lacurie

```

## Chengwei Ding, 2011-06-01 12:31

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <4DE63127.60903@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4DE63127.60903%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <m3aae1yjnm.fsf@localhost.localdomain>

```
On 06/01/2011 11:40 AM, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> Chengwei Ding<waterding@gmail.com>  writes:
>
>> can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git
>> annotate cmd.
>>
>> i tried the same option on blame cmd which seems to be working, but
>> not on the annotate which i use git annotate --date=relative or i
>> wrote date config variable as blame.date which again work for blame
>> but not annotate, but document says it should share same variable.
> "git annotate" is left for backwards compatibility, so it might be
> that not all git-blame switches work correctly with it.
>
> Does "git blame -c --date=relative" work?
>
emm, no luck.

//Chengwei

```

## Chengwei Ding, 2011-06-01 12:33

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <4DE6319A.5020808@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4DE6319A.5020808%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTik2bTqScNLRwRwdz3h=cPJJxX6v2Q@mail.gmail.com>

```
On 06/01/2011 11:41 AM, Arnaud Lacurie wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git annotate
>> cmd.
> I tried 'git annotate --date=relative<onefile>' and it works perfectly here.
> git version 1.7.4.1
> ubuntu 11.04
>
> It works also well on the git version 1.7.5.3.401.gfb674 (The latest on master)
>
> Regards
>
try again on my machine, give same result when with and without --date. 
haven't tried latest master but did try the 1.7.5.3 official release 
(manual compiled)

//Chengwei

```

## Jeff King, 2011-06-01 16:16

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <20110601161638.GB7132@sigill.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20110601161638.GB7132%40sigill.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <4DE5F655.9020400@gmail.com>

```
On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 10:20:37AM +0200, Chengwei Ding wrote:

> can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git
> annotate cmd.

This is by design:

  $ git show 31653c1abc1ac80206db9efca56ff1969150d8fe
  Author: Eugene Letuchy <eugene@facebook.com>
  Date:   Fri Feb 20 14:51:11 2009 -0800
  [...]
      git annotate ignores the date format specifiers and continues to
      uses the ISO format, as before.
  [...]
  +       if (cmd_is_annotate) {
                  output_option |= OUTPUT_ANNOTATE_COMPAT;
  +               blame_date_mode = DATE_ISO8601;
  +       } else {
  +               blame_date_mode = revs.date_mode;
  +       }

The annotate command is a historical artifact, and will remain frozen in
time in terms of output format and features. If you want to use newer
features, use "git blame". If you really need the annotate output format
with newer blame features, use "git blame -c".

-Peff

```

## Chengwei Ding, 2011-06-01 16:28

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <1805632198775747949@unknownmsgid>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/1805632198775747949%40unknownmsgid
In-Reply-To: <20110601161638.GB7132@sigill.intra.peff.net>

```
Thx Peff, this really helps. So then doc on this cmd is outdated. Have
been used to emacs build-in vc which call annotate (rumor say it will
support git blame), anyway, have switch to other emacs git plugin now.

Thanks

发自我的 iPhone

在 Jun 1, 2011，18:16，Jeff King <peff@peff.net> 写道：

> On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 10:20:37AM +0200, Chengwei Ding wrote:
>
>> can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git
>> annotate cmd.
>
> This is by design:
>
>  $ git show 31653c1abc1ac80206db9efca56ff1969150d8fe
>  Author: Eugene Letuchy <eugene@facebook.com>
>  Date:   Fri Feb 20 14:51:11 2009 -0800
>  [...]
>      git annotate ignores the date format specifiers and continues to
>      uses the ISO format, as before.
>  [...]
>  +       if (cmd_is_annotate) {
>                  output_option |= OUTPUT_ANNOTATE_COMPAT;
>  +               blame_date_mode = DATE_ISO8601;
>  +       } else {
>  +               blame_date_mode = revs.date_mode;
>  +       }
>
> The annotate command is a historical artifact, and will remain frozen in
> time in terms of output format and features. If you want to use newer
> features, use "git blame". If you really need the annotate output format
> with newer blame features, use "git blame -c".
>
> -Peff

```

## Jeff King, 2011-06-01 16:49

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <20110601164904.GD7132@sigill.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20110601164904.GD7132%40sigill.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <20110601161638.GB7132@sigill.intra.peff.net>

```
On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 12:16:38PM -0400, Jeff King wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 10:20:37AM +0200, Chengwei Ding wrote:
> 
> > can anyone confirm that this "--date" option is working for git
> > annotate cmd.
> 
> This is by design:
> 
>   $ git show 31653c1abc1ac80206db9efca56ff1969150d8fe
>   Author: Eugene Letuchy <eugene@facebook.com>
>   Date:   Fri Feb 20 14:51:11 2009 -0800
>   [...]
>       git annotate ignores the date format specifiers and continues to
>       uses the ISO format, as before.
>   [...]
>   +       if (cmd_is_annotate) {
>                   output_option |= OUTPUT_ANNOTATE_COMPAT;
>   +               blame_date_mode = DATE_ISO8601;
>   +       } else {
>   +               blame_date_mode = revs.date_mode;
>   +       }
> 
> The annotate command is a historical artifact, and will remain frozen in
> time in terms of output format and features. If you want to use newer
> features, use "git blame". If you really need the annotate output format
> with newer blame features, use "git blame -c".

Having said that, this would be really easy to support, and I don't
think would have any negative compatibility consequences, as long as we
don't support blame.date. But I don't think we're breaking anybody
relying on "git annotate --date=whatever" being silently ignored, as
that option has never done anything useful.

The patch would look like this:

diff --git a/builtin/blame.c b/builtin/blame.c
index 26a5d42..274a98d 100644
--- a/builtin/blame.c
+++ b/builtin/blame.c
@@ -2333,7 +2333,10 @@ int cmd_blame(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	git_config(git_blame_config, NULL);
 	init_revisions(&revs, NULL);
-	revs.date_mode = blame_date_mode;
+	if (cmd_is_annotate)
+		revs.date_mode = DATE_ISO8601;
+	else
+		revs.date_mode = blame_date_mode;
 	DIFF_OPT_SET(&revs.diffopt, ALLOW_TEXTCONV);
 
 	save_commit_buffer = 0;
@@ -2368,13 +2371,10 @@ parse_done:
 	if (revs_file && read_ancestry(revs_file))
 		die_errno("reading graft file '%s' failed", revs_file);
 
-	if (cmd_is_annotate) {
+	if (cmd_is_annotate)
 		output_option |= OUTPUT_ANNOTATE_COMPAT;
-		blame_date_mode = DATE_ISO8601;
-	} else {
-		blame_date_mode = revs.date_mode;
-	}
 
+	blame_date_mode = revs.date_mode;
 	/* The maximum width used to show the dates */
 	switch (blame_date_mode) {
 	case DATE_RFC2822:

```

## Jonathan Nieder, 2011-06-01 19:37

Subject: Re: git annotate with date option not working?
Message-ID: <20110601193704.GA9950@elie>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20110601193704.GA9950%40elie
In-Reply-To: <20110601164904.GD7132@sigill.intra.peff.net>

```
Jeff King wrote:

> Having said that, this would be really easy to support, and I don't
> think would have any negative compatibility consequences, as long as we
> don't support blame.date. But I don't think we're breaking anybody
> relying on "git annotate --date=whatever" being silently ignored, as
> that option has never done anything useful.
>
> The patch would look like this:

Looks obviously good to me.  Chengwei (and anyone else), would you be
interested in moving this forward by adding tests and perhaps
documentation?

Thanks.

```
