# Inconsistency between git-log documentation and behavior regarding default date format. 3 messages from 2023-01-24 to 2023-02-01. Participants: Rafael Dulfer, Andrei Rybak, Jeff King. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/59146 ## Rafael Dulfer, 2023-01-24 15:09 Subject: Inconsistency between git-log documentation and behavior regarding default date format. Message-ID: <9c3428f6-a254-13b4-046d-6e20ef602aef@dulfer.be> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/9c3428f6-a254-13b4-046d-6e20ef602aef%40dulfer.be In-Reply-To: <793c8116-f7ea-eef2-6979-231c3e94639a@dulfer.be> ``` The Git documentation  states that if no date format is given (or --date=default is given), the date format is similar to rfc2822 except of a few exceptions, of which those listed are:   * There is no comma after the day-of-week   * The time zone is omitted when the local time zone is used However, if we were to compare the two date formats, you can see another difference: git log --default  ->  Tue Jan 24 11:03:47 2023 +0100 git log --rfc          ->  Tue, 24 Jan 2023 11:03:47 +0100 With the default, the month and day-of-month are switched around. From my own quick investigation, this behavior occurs because of the statement found at date.c#L266 wherein the month is inserted before the day-of-month. I am unsure which behavior is exactly intended and whether this discrepancy was known, but it would probably be a good idea to have a note of it in the documentation. ``` ## Andrei Rybak, 2023-02-01 01:33 Subject: Re: Inconsistency between git-log documentation and behavior regarding default date format. Message-ID: <8d72f484-6a72-87f9-44f1-3a38471201db@gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/8d72f484-6a72-87f9-44f1-3a38471201db%40gmail.com In-Reply-To: <9c3428f6-a254-13b4-046d-6e20ef602aef@dulfer.be> ``` On 24/01/2023 16:09, Rafael Dulfer wrote: > The Git documentation >  states that if no date format is given (or --date=default is given), the date format is similar to rfc2822 except of a few exceptions, of which those listed are: > >   * There is no comma after the day-of-week >   * The time zone is omitted when the local time zone is used > > However, if we were to compare the two date formats, you can see another > difference: > > git log --default  ->  Tue Jan 24 11:03:47 2023 +0100 > git log --rfc          ->  Tue, 24 Jan 2023 11:03:47 +0100 It seems that options in these samples were mistyped. They are missing the "--date=" part: $ git log -1 --date=default master | grep 'Date:' Date: Sat Jan 21 16:35:14 2023 -0800 $ git log -1 --date=rfc2822 master | grep 'Date:' Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2023 16:35:14 -0800 > > With the default, the month and day-of-month are switched around. From > my own quick investigation, this behavior occurs because of the > statement found at date.c#L266 > wherein the month is inserted before the day-of-month. I am unsure which behavior is exactly intended and whether this discrepancy was known, but it would probably be a good idea to have a note of it in the documentation. Indeed, the description of the option (which comes from Documentation/rev-list-options.txt) doesn't describe all differences between --date=default and --date=rfc2822. A fuller list could be: * There is no comma after the day-of-week * The time zone is omitted when the local time zone is used * Day-of-month and month are switched around * Time-of-day and the year are switched around CC'ing Peff, who wrote the list of exceptions in add00ba2de (date: make "local" orthogonal to date format, 2015-09-03). ``` ## Jeff King, 2023-02-01 11:51 Subject: Re: Inconsistency between git-log documentation and behavior regarding default date format. Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Y9pSWCS1BNkHt%2BMw%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: <8d72f484-6a72-87f9-44f1-3a38471201db@gmail.com> ``` On Wed, Feb 01, 2023 at 02:33:49AM +0100, Andrei Rybak wrote: > Indeed, the description of the option (which comes from > Documentation/rev-list-options.txt) doesn't describe all differences > between --date=default and --date=rfc2822. > > A fuller list could be: > > * There is no comma after the day-of-week > * The time zone is omitted when the local time zone is used > * Day-of-month and month are switched around > * Time-of-day and the year are switched around > > CC'ing Peff, who wrote the list of exceptions in add00ba2de (date: make > "local" orthogonal to date format, 2015-09-03). I don't think I had any particular reason to omit those other differences. I probably just didn't notice them. Patches welcome. -Peff ```