From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Chris Webb Subject: Re: [PATCH] format-patch: use current date in mbox 'From COMMIT DATE' header line Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:55:23 +0100 Message-ID: <20100415155523.GL12365@arachsys.com> References: <9946ffbdf26e7b08b9b00b87d4b575fea774be4c.1271342450.git.chris@arachsys.com> <20100415151619.GK12365@arachsys.com> <201004151735.31415.trast@student.ethz.ch> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Junio C Hamano , git@vger.kernel.org To: Thomas Rast X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Apr 15 17:55:37 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O2RPk-0007tb-MT for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:55:37 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753426Ab0DOPza (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:55:30 -0400 Received: from alpha.arachsys.com ([91.203.57.7]:53896 "EHLO alpha.arachsys.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751806Ab0DOPz3 (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:55:29 -0400 Received: from [83.104.159.199] (helo=miranda.arachsys.com) by alpha.arachsys.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.52) id 1O2RPZ-0004A8-A8; Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:55:25 +0100 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <201004151735.31415.trast@student.ethz.ch> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Thomas Rast writes: > Have you read > > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/124082/focus=124092 I hadn't but have now. I don't buy the idea that this date is an unused placeholder in mbox files, and therefore can be sensibly set to an arbitary constant date in the distant past. RFC4155 appendix A defines this date as the date a message was received. This isn't directly applicable to the context of format-patch, but other users of mbox format (e.g. MUAs doing an fcc) tend to fill it with the date the message was generated, and might reasonably expect to be able to sort on this date, e.g. when displaying a drafts folder. If nothing else, it's extremely surprising to run format-patch, see a ridiculous date and wonder how your system time has become corrupted while you've been working! Cheers, Chris.