From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Junio C Hamano Subject: Re: [RFC/PATCH] log: add log.firstparent option Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:46:33 -0700 Message-ID: References: <20150723012343.GA21000@peff.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Josh Bleecher Snyder To: Jeff King X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Fri Jul 24 00:46:41 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZIPGC-00066t-2c for gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Jul 2015 00:46:40 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753758AbbGWWqg (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Jul 2015 18:46:36 -0400 Received: from mail-pa0-f52.google.com ([209.85.220.52]:36514 "EHLO mail-pa0-f52.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753642AbbGWWqf (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Jul 2015 18:46:35 -0400 Received: by pachj5 with SMTP id hj5so3159217pac.3 for ; Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:46:34 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=sender:from:to:cc:subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id :user-agent:mime-version:content-type; bh=qY6g9/L4Mq4U1K4z0R3Mk0Z9292jqEu+BGN05ir7/Ik=; b=slHqIlYJYoCkZjNsmr1VkYviuLmCVVARHo/d0Ip/0vJBPF16pB5Nu3KxGPXeVx7FHF neonCC2rk5aBUu9hDBG4tDsKrwQB7UvEqyMEnhth0gFRG7WOzTitmeIrVxr9I9f0xbmU DepMUG41j0NYvQEo5UmN/oEq/qG3xmtXcAyS8LbpTRGovT3i4QQnZdIXiUcXjzp1C6jf 5QTsq6srR84Xpz3IUuE3ZiRBFVbq2WNZHef0hkVf6l6cKkpPCoh0H6XbtRZKWQkmmWhT 1PI51YfRZY9qUtGmoNnX5YeM8Kt41Gv6RCcdkDjbCD01CNdWxaDAvfNR5QrTHDxBJuw8 fQwA== X-Received: by 10.66.249.101 with SMTP id yt5mr23409834pac.116.1437691594764; Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:46:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost ([2620:0:10c2:1012:156f:a37c:e915:d6df]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id r6sm10821443pdn.24.2015.07.23.15.46.33 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:46:33 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20150723012343.GA21000@peff.net> (Jeff King's message of "Wed, 22 Jul 2015 18:23:44 -0700") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Jeff King writes: > But other projects prefer to keep the messy history intact. > For one thing, it makes collaboration on a topic easier, as > developers can simply pull from each other during the messy > development. And two, that history may later be useful when > tracking down a bug, because it gives more insight into the > actual thought process of the developer. > > But in this latter case you want _two_ views of history. You > may want to see the "simple" version in which a series of > fully-formed topics hit the branch (and you would like to > see the diff of their final form). Or you may want to see > the messy details, because you are digging into a bug > related to the topic. While I can see the reasoning behind the above [*1*], I am not sure if the output with "--first-parent" would always be a good match for the "simple" version. Wouldn't the people who keep these messy histories also those who merge project trunk into a random topic and push the result back as the updated project trunk? Admittedly, that merely is saying that "--first-parent" is not a solution to such a project, and does not say much about the usefulness of the new configuration, so I'd queue it as-is. [Footnote] *1* I do not necessarily agree, though. The history being messy is a sign that "the actual thought process of the developer" was not clearly expressed in the work, and it is not likely that you have more insight by looking at it---you will see more mess, for certain, though.