Re: git-log to go forward instead of reverse?

[Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>]

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> writes:

> And if you didn't know about "git shortlog" already, I personally actually 
> find it easier to read
>
> 	git log --no-merges ORIG_HEAD.. | git shortlog
>
> which orders things by author instead.

Yes, and you can even have '-p' between git and shortlog in the
latter command if you do want the pager ;-).

BTW, when I prepare the "What's in" messages, I often find it
more useful to have a brother of short-log command that does not
group by author but group by topic branch the commits came from.

Currently I prepare the categorized list by hand, reviewing each
commit in "master..next" shortlog output.  While I do not mind
it too much since that is a good way to remind myself what are
still cooking, it would be nice to have to a command that takes:

	- which branch the output is relative to (defaults
          to "master");

	- list of branches that are "topics";

        - which branch the parts of topics have been merged to
          (optional -- I'd use "next" for my use).

and for each topic:

	- see if the topic branches off from another topic (for
          example, the merge-tree topic branches off from the
          xdiff-common topic like [*1*]); if so, state that and
          use that branch point instead of "master" in the next
          step;

	- list commits that have not made "master" yet;
          optionally, when "next" is given, limit the output
          only to the ones that have made "next" already.


[Footnote]

*1*

$ git show-branch --topics master lt/xdiff-common lt/merge-tree
* [master] git-rev-list: add documentation for --parents, --no-merges
 ! [lt/xdiff-common] xdiff: generate "anti-diffs" aka what is common...
  ! [lt/merge-tree] Improved three-way blob merging code
---
  + [lt/merge-tree] Improved three-way blob merging code
  + [lt/merge-tree^] Prepare "git-merge-tree" for future work
 ++ [lt/xdiff-common] xdiff: generate "anti-diffs" aka what is common...
*++ [master~67] checkout -m: fix read-tree invocation