# [PATCH] .gitignore git-describe

8 messages from 2006-01-08 to 2006-01-09. Participants: Andreas Ericsson, Timo Hirvonen, H. Peter Anvin, Linus Torvalds.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/3007

## Andreas Ericsson, 2006-01-08 14:15

Subject: [PATCH] .gitignore git-describe
Message-ID: <20060108141457.8C4E85BE8F@nox.op5.se>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20060108141457.8C4E85BE8F%40nox.op5.se

```
Signed-off-by: Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>

---

 .gitignore |    1 +
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

265df952d4c61f60eae42261aeea90e9b6d8e414
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 1a9090b..4335061 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ git-count-objects
 git-cvsexportcommit
 git-cvsimport
 git-daemon
+git-describe
 git-diff
 git-diff-files
 git-diff-index
-- 
1.0.7-gb38d1

```

## Timo Hirvonen, 2006-01-08 14:40

Subject: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <20060108164038.89e4439f.tihirvon@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20060108164038.89e4439f.tihirvon%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <20060108141457.8C4E85BE8F@nox.op5.se>

```

git-format-patch uses "date '+%s %z'" format for the Date header.
Sylpheed does not understand this format.  How common this convention
is?  Should we change git-format-patch to use more standard date format?

OTOH, I like the %s format because it is so simple and easy to parse :)

-- 
http://onion.dynserv.net/~timo/

```

## Andreas Ericsson, 2006-01-08 15:21

Subject: Re: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <43C12DE9.8010906@op5.se>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/43C12DE9.8010906%40op5.se
In-Reply-To: <20060108164038.89e4439f.tihirvon@gmail.com>

```
Timo Hirvonen wrote:
> git-format-patch uses "date '+%s %z'" format for the Date header.
> Sylpheed does not understand this format.  How common this convention
> is?  Should we change git-format-patch to use more standard date format?
> 
> OTOH, I like the %s format because it is so simple and easy to parse :)
> 

Actually, that's what's printed in the commit message, so any change 
would have to be put there and that would break backwards compatibility 
for new tools that might want to use it.

On an unrelated note, please don't start a new thread by replying to an 
old message. It's very confusing to follow and people may not see your 
message. This time it was doubly so because the next mail in my inbox is 
a patch for git-format-patch, to which I thought you replied.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

```

## Timo Hirvonen, 2006-01-08 15:37

Subject: Re: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <20060108173736.199df297.tihirvon@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20060108173736.199df297.tihirvon%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <43C12DE9.8010906@op5.se>

```
On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 16:21:13 +0100
Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se> wrote:

> Timo Hirvonen wrote:
> > git-format-patch uses "date '+%s %z'" format for the Date header.
> > Sylpheed does not understand this format.  How common this convention
> > is?  Should we change git-format-patch to use more standard date format?
> > 
> > OTOH, I like the %s format because it is so simple and easy to parse :)
> > 
> 
> Actually, that's what's printed in the commit message, so any change 
> would have to be put there and that would break backwards compatibility 
> for new tools that might want to use it.

So fixing Sylpheed (and maybe other email clients too) is the right
solution...

> On an unrelated note, please don't start a new thread by replying to an 
> old message. It's very confusing to follow and people may not see your 
> message. This time it was doubly so because the next mail in my inbox is 
> a patch for git-format-patch, to which I thought you replied.

Sorry.  I replied to your message because it was the message having Date
header in the "%s %z" format.

-- 
http://onion.dynserv.net/~timo/

```

## Andreas Ericsson, 2006-01-08 15:44

Subject: Re: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <43C13369.4090809@op5.se>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/43C13369.4090809%40op5.se
In-Reply-To: <20060108173736.199df297.tihirvon@gmail.com>

```
Timo Hirvonen wrote:
> On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 16:21:13 +0100
> Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Timo Hirvonen wrote:
>>
>>>git-format-patch uses "date '+%s %z'" format for the Date header.
>>>Sylpheed does not understand this format.  How common this convention
>>>is?  Should we change git-format-patch to use more standard date format?
>>>
>>>OTOH, I like the %s format because it is so simple and easy to parse :)
>>>
>>
>>Actually, that's what's printed in the commit message, so any change 
>>would have to be put there and that would break backwards compatibility 
>>for new tools that might want to use it.
> 
> 
> So fixing Sylpheed (and maybe other email clients too) is the right
> solution...
> 

Nopes. In this case fixing my home-hacked git-send-patch script is the 
right thing to do. git-format-patch has always printed that format, 
though, so the error lies with me and the patch I sent. I shall have to 
re-visit it after reading rfc 822 a bit more closely.

> 
>>On an unrelated note, please don't start a new thread by replying to an 
>>old message. It's very confusing to follow and people may not see your 
>>message. This time it was doubly so because the next mail in my inbox is 
>>a patch for git-format-patch, to which I thought you replied.
> 
> 
> Sorry.  I replied to your message because it was the message having Date
> header in the "%s %z" format.
> 

I just noticed. Thanks, and sorry.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

```

## H. Peter Anvin, 2006-01-08 22:05

Subject: Re: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <43C18CC7.3050509@zytor.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/43C18CC7.3050509%40zytor.com
In-Reply-To: <43C13369.4090809@op5.se>

```
Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> 
> Nopes. In this case fixing my home-hacked git-send-patch script is the 
> right thing to do. git-format-patch has always printed that format, 
> though, so the error lies with me and the patch I sent. I shall have to 
> re-visit it after reading rfc 822 a bit more closely.
> 

RFC 2822, please.

	-hpa

```

## Andreas Ericsson, 2006-01-08 23:30

Subject: Re: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <43C1A08B.8080007@op5.se>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/43C1A08B.8080007%40op5.se
In-Reply-To: <43C18CC7.3050509@zytor.com>

```
H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> 
>>
>> Nopes. In this case fixing my home-hacked git-send-patch script is the 
>> right thing to do. git-format-patch has always printed that format, 
>> though, so the error lies with me and the patch I sent. I shall have 
>> to re-visit it after reading rfc 822 a bit more closely.
>>
> 
> RFC 2822, please.
> 

Right you are.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

```

## Linus Torvalds, 2006-01-09 06:11

Subject: Re: git-format-patch Date header
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0601082207510.3169@g5.osdl.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Pine.LNX.4.64.0601082207510.3169%40g5.osdl.org
In-Reply-To: <43C12DE9.8010906@op5.se>

```


On Sun, 8 Jan 2006, Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> 
> Actually, that's what's printed in the commit message, so any change 
> would have to be put there and that would break backwards compatibility 
> for new tools that might want to use it.

No, git should always take the date in any of a million different formats, 
and always turn it into "seconds + timezone" internally.

The fact that git-format-patch also prints it out in the internal format 
is unambiguous (nice) but human-unreadable (bad). 

There are other unambiguous formats it could use, notably standard rfc2822 
format ("date -R").

The git "show_date()" function hopefully does exactly that rfc2822 format, 
but you'd have to make a helper program to do the conversion in 
git-format-patch.sh.

		Linus

```
