Re: git show and gitweb gives different result for kernel

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>]

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006, Martin Waitz wrote:
> 
> But perhaps gitweb should use --cc, too.

Both have their uses.

For example, the diff against the first parent is really broken in some 
cases (if a _downstream_ developer synchronizes up with the upstream, the 
diff ends up being potentially absolutely huge, and most of the time it's 
exactly the wrogn diff to show), but in other cases it's a really 
wonderful diff.

So for the kernel, the current gitweb behaviour tends to be exactly what 
you want if it's a merge that I did, especially if it was a smallish 
merge. 

In contrast, the default for "git show" (--cc) always shows something that 
makes sense, but it's not necessarily going to always be _useful_. It just 
shows the conflicting parts, which is something that is sensible 
regardless of which way the merge went, but it obviously doesn't really 
say anything about what the real _changes_ were.

So gitweb often shows what people want it to show, but then at other times 
it shows totally pointless stuff. While --cc always shows something 
"relevant" (and often that's the empty set), but it's relevant only in a 
very specific way: it is about how the merge fixed up data conflicts, and 
that's not necessarily anything most people are even interested in.

I think it might make sense for gitweb to just have the option to show the 
diff against any of the parents _or_ to show the conflicting parts (--cc). 
Simply because different people and different uses will have different 
ideas of what they find useful.

		Linus