Re: Config variables and scripting // was Re: [RFC/PATCH] log: add log.firstparent option

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 10:14:45PM -0700, Jeff King wrote:

> Script writers should not care here, because they should not be parsing
> the output of the porcelain "log" command in the first place. It already
> has many gotchas (e.g., log.date, log.abbrevCommit).
> 
> I am sympathetic, though. There are some things that git-log can do that
> rev-list cannot, so people end up using it in scripts. I think you can
> avoid it with a "rev-list | diff-tree" pipeline, though I'm not 100%
> sure if that covers all cases. But I would much rather see a solution
> along the lines of making the plumbing cover more cases, rather than
> trying to make the porcelain behave in a script.

Ah, I see in a nearby thread that you just recently fixed a problem with
git-subtree and log.date, so I see now why you are so interested. :)

And I was also reminded by that usage of why rev-list is annoying in
scripts: even with "--format", it insists on writing the "commit ..."
header. I wonder if we could fix that...

-Peff