# bug: git format prints no final newline 2 messages from 2022-11-03 to 2022-11-03. Participants: Evan Benn, Jeff King. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/58739 ## Evan Benn, 2022-11-03 03:14 Subject: bug: git format prints no final newline Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAKz_xw2X%2BeapmASqG7V%3DRXehh7%3DLN24m%2BMJPn-wx80oZAZHBnQ%40mail.gmail.com ``` This command omits the final newline: git log --format=format:"%H" check with: `| tail | cat -A` This command doesn't, but there is an extra newline between each line of course: git log --format=format:"%H%n" This seems to be intentional in the code, a newline is printed before each line except the first: https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/log-tree.c#L664 It seems more correct to print a newline after every line, but the code is very hairy so I am keen to get any feedback before attempting that. Thanks ``` ## Jeff King, 2022-11-03 04:43 Subject: Re: bug: git format prints no final newline Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Y2NG6u1TVdDBZAZE%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Thu, Nov 03, 2022 at 02:14:37PM +1100, Evan Benn wrote: > This command omits the final newline: > > git log --format=format:"%H" This is the intended behavior. See the section on "tformat:" in "git help log", and the discussion of "terminator" vs "separator" semantics. The "separator" semantics are helpful for most multiline formats (where your separator is probably a blank line, and you don't want an extra one at the end). Terminator is more useful for one-line outputs. I think one could argue that the terminator one is what most people want and would be a better default, but "format" is the way it is for historical compatibility. If you use the do-what-I-mean form of: git log --format=%H then it defaults to tformat (notice no "format:" or "tformat:" keyword; we infer from the presence of "%H" in the name that it's a custom format, and that is what defaults to tformat). -Peff ```