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git shortlog --committer vs --committer=<pattern>

Subject: git shortlog --committer vs --committer=<pattern>

## tl;dr

5 messages between Jan 13, 2026 and Jan 13, 2026.

replies: 4people: 4as markdown or json

Manuel Rego Casasnovas· Jan 13, 2026, 15:22 UTC · lore

Hi,

Doing something like this in a Git repository returns an error (git version 2.51.0): $ git shortlog --committer=foo error: option `committer' takes no value

However the option "--committer=<pattern>" is in the documentation: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---committerpattern

But it seems to be in conflict with "--committer": https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---committer

It would be nice to either allow using "--committer=<pattern>" for shortlog, or if that's not possible fix the documentation.

Thanks,
   Rego

Junio C Hamano· Jan 13, 2026, 15:52 UTC · re: Manuel Rego Casasnovas · lore

Re: git shortlog --committer vs --committer=<pattern>

Manuel Rego Casasnovas <rego@igalia.com> writes:

> Doing something like this in a Git repository returns an error (git 
> version 2.51.0):
> $ git shortlog --committer=foo
> error: option `committer' takes no value

Thanks for noticing and reporting.

> It would be nice to either allow using "--committer=<pattern>" for 
> shortlog

I took a brief look at the command line parser's source. It shouldn't be impossible to improve the status quo, but it would be impossible to match what other commands in the "git regv-lits" family of commands like "git log" would do, because "--committer" can take its <pattern> as a separate parameter.

So it is clear that "git log --committer" (no other parameters) is a syntax error, "git log --committer -n" (no other parameters) is not an error but is looking for a committer that match the pattern -n, but the same reasoning cannot apply for "git shortlog". Most notably, "git shortlog --committer -n" cannot behave the same way as "git shortlog --committer=-n".

rsbecker@nexbridge.com· Jan 13, 2026, 15:49 UTC · re: Manuel Rego Casasnovas · lore

RE: git shortlog --committer vs --committer=<pattern>

On January 13, 2026 10:23 AM, Manuel Rego Casasnovas wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

>Doing something like this in a Git repository returns an error (git version 2.51.0):
>$ git shortlog --committer=foo
>error: option `committer' takes no value
>
>However the option "--committer=<pattern>" is in the documentation:
>https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---
>committerpattern
>
>But it seems to be in conflict with "--committer":
>https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---
>committer
>
>It would be nice to either allow using "--committer=<pattern>" for shortlog, or if
>that's not possible fix the documentation.

I do not see --committer=<pattern>, but do see --committer pattern in the online help and documentation. --committer is an alias for --group=committer. Pattern applies to the log entries.

Pushkar Singh· Jan 13, 2026, 16:20 UTC · re: rsbecker@nexbridge.com · lore

Re: git shortlog --committer vs --committer=<pattern>

Hi Junio,

Thanks for the clarification.

I confirmed that this comes from git-shortlog pulling in Documentation/rev-list-options.adoc, which documents --author=<pattern> and --committer=<pattern>, even though git shortlog treats --committer as an alias for --group=committer and therefore cannot accept a value.

So this looks like a documentation mismatch rather than just the website.

I will prepare a documentation patch to make git-shortlog’s options unambiguous.

Thanks, Pushkar

On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 9:28 PM <rsbecker@nexbridge.com> wrote:

Show 22 quoted lines

>
> On January 13, 2026 10:23 AM, Manuel Rego Casasnovas wrote:
> >Doing something like this in a Git repository returns an error (git version 2.51.0):
> >$ git shortlog --committer=foo
> >error: option `committer' takes no value
> >
> >However the option "--committer=<pattern>" is in the documentation:
> >https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---
> >committerpattern
> >
> >But it seems to be in conflict with "--committer":
> >https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---
> >committer
> >
> >It would be nice to either allow using "--committer=<pattern>" for shortlog, or if
> >that's not possible fix the documentation.
>
> I do not see --committer=<pattern>, but do see --committer pattern in the online
> help and documentation. --committer is an alias for --group=committer.
> Pattern applies to the log entries.
>
>

Pushkar Singh· Jan 13, 2026, 18:01 UTC · re: Pushkar Singh · lore

Re: git shortlog --committer vs --committer=<pattern>

Follow up to my previous mail.

After checking the generated git-shortlog(1) and git shortlog --help, both --committer (grouping) and --committer=<pattern> (commit limiting) are indeed documented correctly.

The real issue is the option parser ambiguity that Junio described, where --committer=foo is parsed as the grouping option and rejected, even though the filtering form exists.

So this is not a documentation error but a command line parsing limitation. Thanks for the clarification.

On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 9:50 PM Pushkar Singh <pushkarkumarsingh1970@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 43 quoted lines

>
> Hi Junio,
>
> Thanks for the clarification.
>
> I confirmed that this comes from git-shortlog pulling in
> Documentation/rev-list-options.adoc, which documents
> --author=<pattern> and --committer=<pattern>, even though
> git shortlog treats --committer as an alias for --group=committer
> and therefore cannot accept a value.
>
> So this looks like a documentation mismatch rather than just
> the website.
>
> I will prepare a documentation patch to make git-shortlog’s
> options unambiguous.
>
> Thanks,
> Pushkar
>
> On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 9:28 PM <rsbecker@nexbridge.com> wrote:
> >
> > On January 13, 2026 10:23 AM, Manuel Rego Casasnovas wrote:
> > >Doing something like this in a Git repository returns an error (git version 2.51.0):
> > >$ git shortlog --committer=foo
> > >error: option `committer' takes no value
> > >
> > >However the option "--committer=<pattern>" is in the documentation:
> > >https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---
> > >committerpattern
> > >
> > >But it seems to be in conflict with "--committer":
> > >https://git-scm.com/docs/git-shortlog#Documentation/git-shortlog.txt---
> > >committer
> > >
> > >It would be nice to either allow using "--committer=<pattern>" for shortlog, or if
> > >that's not possible fix the documentation.
> >
> > I do not see --committer=<pattern>, but do see --committer pattern in the online
> > help and documentation. --committer is an alias for --group=committer.
> > Pattern applies to the log entries.
> >
> >