Re: git rev-list ordering

["Björn Steinbrink" <B.Steinbrink@gmx.de>]

On 2008.11.18 12:28:27 -0800, Pete Harlan wrote:
> I have a script that runs periodically where I need to know the email
> address of who added $file to the system, for a handful of $files,
> because I'm moving them somewhere else and want to let them know.  The
> most recent commits aren't interesting, it's the first commit that matters.
> 
> I use:
> 
>   git rev-list --reverse --pretty=format:%ae HEAD -- $file
> 
> and the second line has the information I need.
> 
> Perhaps there's a more straightforward way to answer the question "who
> first put this file here".
> 
> (One can imagine that may be no "first", because $file merged from
> different paths, but in mine as in many real-world cases, it (a) won't
> happen and (b) whatever happens will be fine if it does.)
> 
> I don't need this to work differently than it does, but perhaps it
> constitutes an "interesting situation where you need to list the oldest
> n commits"?

What you're asking for are commits that added the file, and you can tell
git to find them, instead of using the --reverse work-around:

git log --diff-filter=A --pretty=format:%ae HEAD -- $file

If you're running that with a single file, you might want to add
--follow and maybe add R to the diff-filter as well (to get the renaming
commits).

Björn