Re: [GSoC Project RFC] "git log --oneline" improvements

[Parth Gala <parthpgala@gmail.com>]

> Parth Gala <parthpgala@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I went through the discussions here[1] and here[2] and what I could
>> conclude from [1] is, the 'git log --oneline' command currently shows the
>> decorations of a commit before the commit message but after the shortened
>> hash due to which the alignment of the messages is disturbed like this,
>>
>>      3f07dac29 (HEAD -> master) pathspec: don't error out on all-excl...
>>      ca4a562f2 pathspec magic: add '^' as alias for '!'
>>      02555c1b2 ls-remote: add "--diff" option to show only refs that differ
>>      6e3a7b339 (tag: v2.12.0-rc0, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Git 2.12-rc0
>>      fafca0f72 Merge branch 'cw/log-updates-for-all-refs-really'
>>      74dee5cfa Merge branch 'pl/complete-diff-submodule-diff'
>>      36acf4123 Merge branch 'rs/object-id'
>>
>> And if the decorations were to be shown after the message and you were
>> checking the logs just to see the status of a branch rather than the
>> contents then you would again be at a disadvantage, since you would want
>> to have them visible right next to the hashes. Besides decorations at the
>> end would have the inconvenience of being truncated at the end of the line
>> on smaller screens.
>>
>> This format for --oneline with decorations was decided upon,
>>
>>    b9df16a4c (HEAD -> master)
>>              pathspec: don't error out on all-exclusionary pathspec patterns
>>    91a491f05 pathspec magic: add '^' as alias for '!'
>>    c8e05fd6d ls-remote: add "--diff" option to show only refs that differ
>>    20769079d (tag: v2.12.0-rc2, origin/master, origin/HEAD)
>>              Git 2.12-rc2
>>    076c05393 Hopefully the final batch of mini-topics before the final
> Hmph.  Who decided that such a format is a good idea?  I do not see
> anything decided positively in the thread [1] you referred to.

Okay, right.
But this format does overcome the problems discussed in that thread.
And yes, if `--oneline` is preferred to consume no more than one line,
then as you mentioned below, a `--pretty=concise` format seems to be a
good idea here.

>> In [2] such formats with date and timestamp are discussed along with
>> compatibility for --graph option as well,
>>
>>    === 2015-09-17 ===
>>    * ee6ad5f4 12:16 jch (tag: v2.5.3) Git 2.5.3
>>      === 2015-09-09 ===
>>    * b9d66899 14:22 js  am --skip/--abort: merge HEAD/ORIG_HEAD tree
>> into index
>>    |   === 2015-09-04 ===
>>    | * 27ea6f85 10:46 jch (tag: v2.5.2) Git 2.5.2
>>    * 74b67638 10:36 jch (tag: v2.4.9) Git 2.4.9
>>                         ..........
>>    * ecad27cf 10:32 jch (tag: v2.3.9) Git 2.3.9
>>
>> So these are the two main formats to be enhanced along with as many options
>> of log as possible. What are your views on this ?
>>
> Making the "--oneline" format to consume more than one line for a
> commit is probably not what we want anyway.

For this format can we build a new option say `--time` or `--log-time`(duh!)
which is compatible only when the other options don't include --notes,
--pretty or --format(in which case `--log-time` option gets ignored).
Here I will have to probably build upon Jeff's work to include the
other options that the script supports too.

> Coming up with a new format (say, "--pretty=concise"), or a new
> option that tweaks the behaviour of "--oneline", are possible ways
> to add a new feature without disrupting existing users' use cases,
> though.
>
> Thanks.
>