Re: [RFC/PATCH] log: add log.firstparent option

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

> This works for "format-patch -s". But I guess that leaves open the
> question of "commit --signoff". It should not matter when making a
> commit new (after all, you have not yet had a chance to put the "---"
> in). But something like "git commit --amend --signoff" might want to
> handle it. Of course we have no idea if any "---" we find there is meant
> to be an email notes-separator by the user, or if they happened to use
> "---" for something else[1] (which is a bad idea if you have an emailed
> patches workflow, but many people do not). So it's a bit riskier.
>
> -Peff
>
> [1] While reading the old "git commit --notes" thread recently, Johan
>     Herland gave a plausible confusing example:
>
>     ...
>       Why
>       ---
>
>       To show that "---" can be part of a commit message. :)

That is all true, but such a commit already is problematic when used
as an input to "am", regardless of where the sign-off goes.  With or
without our change, the intended explanation of "why" part will be
missing from the resulting commit at the receiving end.  The only
difference your change makes is that the resulting truncated log
message at least will have a sign-off, albeit at a place that the
user did not intend to put it.

We could invent a new and more prominent delimiter, teach
"format-patch" to add that between the log and patch if and only if
the log has a three-dashes line in it (with an option to override
that "if and only if" default), and teach "mailsplit" to pay
attention to it.  People who are relying on the fact that a
three-dashes line in the local log message will be stripped off at
the receiving end have to pass that "The commit has three-dash in it
as a cut-mark on purpose; don't add that prominent delimiter" option
when formatting their patches out for submission.

But I somehow think it is not worth the effort.  It is fairly well
established that three-dash lines are cut marks and Johan's example
log message above deliberately violates only to spite itself.  My
knee-jerk advice is that people can just rephrase s/Why/Reason/ and
be done with it.

I dunno.