Re: [PATCH] Specify a precision for the length of a subject string

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 04:07:54PM -0600, Nathan W. Panike wrote:

> We can specify the precision of a subject string, so that length the subjects
> viewed by the user do not grow beyond a bound set by the user, in a pretty
> formatted string
> 
> This makes it possible to do, e.g., 
> 
> $ git log --pretty='%h %s' d165204 -1
> d165204 git-p4: fix skipSubmitEdit regression
> 
> With this patch, the user can do
> 
> $ git log --pretty='%h %30s' d165204 -1
> d165204 git-p4: fix skipSubmitEdit reg

Hmm. I think the idea of limiting is OK (though personally, I would just
pipe through a filter that truncates long lines). But I'm a bit negative
on adding a tweak like this that only affects the subject. Is there a
reason I couldn't do %30gs, or %30f, or even some other placeholder?

Also, we already have %w to handle wrapping. Could this be handled in a
similar way (perhaps it could even be considered a special form of
wrapping)?

-Peff