From: kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Cc: "Kristoffer Haugsbakk" <code@khaugsbakk.name>,
"Jean-Noël Avila" <jn.avila@free.fr>
Subject: [PATCH v2 1/4] doc: interpret-trailers: convert to synopsis style
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:48:24 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <V2_doc_interpret-tr_synopsis.50b@msgid.xyz> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <V2_CV_doc_interpret-tr_synopsis.50a@msgid.xyz>
From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
See e.g. 0ae23ab5 (doc: convert git worktree to synopsis style,
2025-10-05) for the markup rules for this style.
There aren’t many subtleties to the transformation of this doc since it
doesn’t use any advanced constructs. The only thing is that "`:`{nbsp}" is
used instead of `': '` to refer to effective inline-verbatim with
a space (␠).[1] I also use (_) for emphasis although (') gives the
same result.
Also prefer linking to Git commands instead of saying e.g. `git
format-patch`. But for this command we can type out git-interpret-
trailers(1) to avoid a self-reference.
Also replace camel case `<keyAlias>` with kebab case `<key-alias>`.
And while doing that make sure to replace `trailer.*` with
`trailer.<key-alias>`.
† 1: Similar to "`tag:`{nbsp}" in `Documentation/pretty-formats.adoc`
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
---
Notes (series):
v2:
• <keyAlias> → <key-alias> (no camelcase)
• trailer.* → trailer.<key-alias>
• No linkgit for this command (it would link to itself); replace with plain
git-interpret-trailers(1)
• Use "`:`{nbsp}" for the verbatim-but-ends-in-space case
This is inspired by Documentation/pretty-formats.adoc:
`tag=<value>`: Shown before tag names. Defaults to "`tag:`{nbsp}".
See: https://lore.kernel.org/git/aa0664a5-09fe-4dee-b243-b3b5dff41b68@app.fastmail.com/
• And also apply the NBSP treatment to two trailer mentions that originally
had a trailing space
Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc | 145 +++++++++++-----------
1 file changed, 73 insertions(+), 72 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
index fd335fe772a..ea47f2f7ae5 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
@@ -7,14 +7,14 @@ git-interpret-trailers - Add or parse structured information in commit messages
SYNOPSIS
--------
-[verse]
-'git interpret-trailers' [--in-place] [--trim-empty]
+[synopsis]
+git interpret-trailers [--in-place] [--trim-empty]
[(--trailer (<key>|<key-alias>)[(=|:)<value>])...]
[--parse] [<file>...]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Add or parse 'trailer' lines that look similar to RFC 822 e-mail
+Add or parse _trailer_ lines that look similar to RFC 822 e-mail
headers, at the end of the otherwise free-form part of a commit
message. For example, in the following commit message
@@ -27,23 +27,24 @@ Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
------------------------------------------------
-the last two lines starting with "Signed-off-by" are trailers.
+the last two lines starting with `Signed-off-by` are trailers.
This command reads commit messages from either the
-<file> arguments or the standard input if no <file> is specified.
+_<file>_ arguments or the standard input if no _<file>_ is specified.
If `--parse` is specified, the output consists of the parsed trailers
coming from the input, without influencing them with any command line
options or configuration variables.
-Otherwise, this command applies `trailer.*` configuration variables
-(which could potentially add new trailers, as well as reposition them),
-as well as any command line arguments that can override configuration
-variables (such as `--trailer=...` which could also add new trailers),
-to each input file. The result is emitted on the standard output.
+Otherwise, this command applies `trailer.<key-alias>` configuration
+variables (which could potentially add new trailers, as well as
+reposition them), as well as any command line arguments that can
+override configuration variables (such as `--trailer=...` which could
+also add new trailers), to each input file. The result is emitted on the
+standard output.
This command can also operate on the output of linkgit:git-format-patch[1],
which is more elaborate than a plain commit message. Namely, such output
-includes a commit message (as above), a "---" divider line, and a patch part.
+includes a commit message (as above), a `---` divider line, and a patch part.
For these inputs, the divider and patch parts are not modified by
this command and are emitted as is on the output, unless
`--no-divider` is specified.
@@ -53,24 +54,24 @@ are applied to each input and the way any existing trailer in
the input is changed. They also make it possible to
automatically add some trailers.
-By default, a '<key>=<value>' or '<key>:<value>' argument given
+By default, a `<key>=<value>` or `<key>:<value>` argument given
using `--trailer` will be appended after the existing trailers only if
-the last trailer has a different (<key>, <value>) pair (or if there
-is no existing trailer). The <key> and <value> parts will be trimmed
+the last trailer has a different (_<key>_, _<value>_) pair (or if there
+is no existing trailer). The _<key>_ and _<value>_ parts will be trimmed
to remove starting and trailing whitespace, and the resulting trimmed
-<key> and <value> will appear in the output like this:
+_<key>_ and _<value>_ will appear in the output like this:
------------------------------------------------
key: value
------------------------------------------------
-This means that the trimmed <key> and <value> will be separated by
-`': '` (one colon followed by one space).
+This means that the trimmed _<key>_ and _<value>_ will be separated by
+"`:`{nbsp}" (one colon followed by one space).
-For convenience, a <key-alias> can be configured to make using `--trailer`
+For convenience, a _<key-alias>_ can be configured to make using `--trailer`
shorter to type on the command line. This can be configured using the
-'trailer.<key-alias>.key' configuration variable. The <keyAlias> must be a prefix
-of the full <key> string, although case sensitivity does not matter. For
+`trailer.<key-alias>.key` configuration variable. The _<key-alias>_ must be a prefix
+of the full _<key>_ string, although case sensitivity does not matter. For
example, if you have
------------------------------------------------
@@ -91,13 +92,13 @@ least one Git-generated or user-configured trailer and consists of at
least 25% trailers.
The group must be preceded by one or more empty (or whitespace-only) lines.
The group must either be at the end of the input or be the last
-non-whitespace lines before a line that starts with '---' (followed by a
+non-whitespace lines before a line that starts with `---` (followed by a
space or the end of the line).
When reading trailers, there can be no whitespace before or inside the
-<key>, but any number of regular space and tab characters are allowed
-between the <key> and the separator. There can be whitespaces before,
-inside or after the <value>. The <value> may be split over multiple lines
+_<key>_, but any number of regular space and tab characters are allowed
+between the _<key>_ and the separator. There can be whitespaces before,
+inside or after the _<value>_. The _<value>_ may be split over multiple lines
with each subsequent line starting with at least one whitespace, like
the "folding" in RFC 822. Example:
@@ -111,77 +112,77 @@ rules for RFC 822 headers. For example they do not follow the encoding rule.
OPTIONS
-------
---in-place::
+`--in-place`::
Edit the files in place.
---trim-empty::
- If the <value> part of any trailer contains only whitespace,
+`--trim-empty`::
+ If the _<value>_ part of any trailer contains only whitespace,
the whole trailer will be removed from the output.
This applies to existing trailers as well as new trailers.
---trailer <key>[(=|:)<value>]::
- Specify a (<key>, <value>) pair that should be applied as a
+`--trailer <key>[(=|:)<value>]`::
+ Specify a (_<key>_, _<value>_) pair that should be applied as a
trailer to the inputs. See the description of this
command.
---where <placement>::
---no-where::
+`--where <placement>`::
+`--no-where`::
Specify where all new trailers will be added. A setting
- provided with '--where' overrides the `trailer.where` and any
- applicable `trailer.<keyAlias>.where` configuration variables
- and applies to all '--trailer' options until the next occurrence of
- '--where' or '--no-where'. Upon encountering '--no-where', clear the
- effect of any previous use of '--where', such that the relevant configuration
+ provided with `--where` overrides the `trailer.where` and any
+ applicable `trailer.<key-alias>.where` configuration variables
+ and applies to all `--trailer` options until the next occurrence of
+ `--where` or `--no-where`. Upon encountering `--no-where`, clear the
+ effect of any previous use of `--where`, such that the relevant configuration
variables are no longer overridden. Possible placements are `after`,
`before`, `end` or `start`.
---if-exists <action>::
---no-if-exists::
+`--if-exists <action>`::
+`--no-if-exists`::
Specify what action will be performed when there is already at
- least one trailer with the same <key> in the input. A setting
- provided with '--if-exists' overrides the `trailer.ifExists` and any
- applicable `trailer.<keyAlias>.ifExists` configuration variables
- and applies to all '--trailer' options until the next occurrence of
- '--if-exists' or '--no-if-exists'. Upon encountering '--no-if-exists', clear the
- effect of any previous use of '--if-exists', such that the relevant configuration
+ least one trailer with the same _<key>_ in the input. A setting
+ provided with `--if-exists` overrides the `trailer.ifExists` and any
+ applicable `trailer.<key-alias>.ifExists` configuration variables
+ and applies to all `--trailer` options until the next occurrence of
+ `--if-exists` or `--no-if-exists`. Upon encountering `--no-if-exists`, clear the
+ effect of any previous use of `--if-exists`, such that the relevant configuration
variables are no longer overridden. Possible actions are `addIfDifferent`,
`addIfDifferentNeighbor`, `add`, `replace` and `doNothing`.
---if-missing <action>::
---no-if-missing::
+`--if-missing <action>`::
+`--no-if-missing`::
Specify what action will be performed when there is no other
- trailer with the same <key> in the input. A setting
- provided with '--if-missing' overrides the `trailer.ifMissing` and any
- applicable `trailer.<keyAlias>.ifMissing` configuration variables
- and applies to all '--trailer' options until the next occurrence of
- '--if-missing' or '--no-if-missing'. Upon encountering '--no-if-missing',
- clear the effect of any previous use of '--if-missing', such that the relevant
+ trailer with the same _<key>_ in the input. A setting
+ provided with `--if-missing` overrides the `trailer.ifMissing` and any
+ applicable `trailer.<key-alias>.ifMissing` configuration variables
+ and applies to all `--trailer` options until the next occurrence of
+ `--if-missing` or `--no-if-missing`. Upon encountering `--no-if-missing`,
+ clear the effect of any previous use of `--if-missing`, such that the relevant
configuration variables are no longer overridden. Possible actions are `doNothing`
or `add`.
---only-trailers::
+`--only-trailers`::
Output only the trailers, not any other parts of the input.
---only-input::
+`--only-input`::
Output only trailers that exist in the input; do not add any
- from the command-line or by applying `trailer.*` configuration
+ from the command-line or by applying `trailer.<key-alias>` configuration
variables.
---unfold::
+`--unfold`::
If a trailer has a value that runs over multiple lines (aka "folded"),
reformat the value into a single line.
---parse::
+`--parse`::
A convenience alias for `--only-trailers --only-input
--unfold`. This makes it easier to only see the trailers coming from the
input without influencing them with any command line options or
configuration variables, while also making the output machine-friendly with
- --unfold.
+ `--unfold`.
---no-divider::
+`--no-divider`::
Do not treat `---` as the end of the commit message. Use this
when you know your input contains just the commit message itself
- (and not an email or the output of `git format-patch`).
+ (and not an email or the output of linkgit:git-format-patch[1]).
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
-----------------------
@@ -193,7 +194,7 @@ include::config/trailer.adoc[]
EXAMPLES
--------
-* Configure a 'sign' trailer with a 'Signed-off-by' key, and then
+* Configure a `sign` trailer with a `Signed-off-by` key, and then
add two of these trailers to a commit message file:
+
------------
@@ -230,8 +231,8 @@ Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
Acked-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
------------
-* Extract the last commit as a patch, and add a 'Cc' and a
- 'Reviewed-by' trailer to it:
+* Extract the last commit as a patch, and add a `Cc` and a
+ `Reviewed-by` trailer to it:
+
------------
$ git format-patch -1
@@ -239,9 +240,9 @@ $ git format-patch -1
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Cc: Alice <alice@example.com>' --trailer 'Reviewed-by: Bob <bob@example.com>' 0001-foo.patch >0001-bar.patch
------------
-* Configure a 'sign' trailer with a command to automatically add a
- 'Signed-off-by: ' with the author information only if there is no
- 'Signed-off-by: ' already, and show how it works:
+* Configure a `sign` trailer with a command to automatically add a
+ "`Signed-off-by:`{nbsp}" with the author information only if there is no
+ "`Signed-off-by:`{nbsp}" already, and show how it works:
+
------------
$ cat msg1.txt
@@ -272,7 +273,7 @@ body text
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
------------
-* Configure a 'fix' trailer with a key that contains a '#' and no
+* Configure a `fix` trailer with a key that contains a `#` and no
space after this character, and show how it works:
+
------------
@@ -284,7 +285,7 @@ subject
Fix #42
------------
-* Configure a 'help' trailer with a cmd use a script `glog-find-author`
+* Configure a `help` trailer with a cmd use a script `glog-find-author`
which search specified author identity from git log in git repository
and show how it works:
+
@@ -308,7 +309,7 @@ Helped-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Helped-by: Christian Couder <christian.couder@gmail.com>
------------
-* Configure a 'ref' trailer with a cmd use a script `glog-grep`
+* Configure a `ref` trailer with a cmd use a script `glog-grep`
to grep last relevant commit from git log in the git repository
and show how it works:
+
@@ -331,7 +332,7 @@ body text
Reference-to: 8bc9a0c769 (Add copyright notices., 2005-04-07)
------------
-* Configure a 'see' trailer with a command to show the subject of a
+* Configure a `see` trailer with a command to show the subject of a
commit that is related, and show how it works:
+
------------
@@ -359,8 +360,8 @@ See-also: fe3187489d69c4 (subject of related commit)
* Configure a commit template with some trailers with empty values
(using sed to show and keep the trailing spaces at the end of the
trailers), then configure a commit-msg hook that uses
- 'git interpret-trailers' to remove trailers with empty values and
- to add a 'git-version' trailer:
+ git-interpret-trailers(1) to remove trailers with empty values and to
+ add a `git-version` trailer:
+
------------
$ cat temp.txt
--
2.53.0.32.gf6228eaf9cc
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-03-16 21:49 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-03-11 22:31 [PATCH 0/3] doc: interpret-trailers: convert to synopsis and update options kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-11 22:31 ` [PATCH 1/3] doc: interpret-trailers: convert to synopsis style kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-12 1:38 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-03-13 16:43 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-03-12 17:34 ` Jean-Noël AVILA
2026-03-12 19:11 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-03-11 22:31 ` [PATCH 2/3] doc: interpret-trailers: normalize and fill out options kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-11 22:31 ` [PATCH 3/3] doc: config: convert trailers section to synopsis style kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-12 17:48 ` Jean-Noël AVILA
2026-03-12 18:14 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-03-12 0:51 ` [PATCH 0/3] doc: interpret-trailers: convert to synopsis and update options Junio C Hamano
2026-03-12 0:53 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-03-16 21:48 ` [PATCH v2 0/4] " kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-16 21:48 ` kristofferhaugsbakk [this message]
2026-03-16 21:48 ` [PATCH v2 2/4] doc: interpret-trailers: normalize and fill out options kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-16 21:48 ` [PATCH v2 3/4] doc: config: convert trailers section to synopsis style kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-03-16 21:48 ` [PATCH v2 4/4] interpret-trailers: use placeholder instead of * kristofferhaugsbakk
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=V2_doc_interpret-tr_synopsis.50b@msgid.xyz \
--to=kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com \
--cc=code@khaugsbakk.name \
--cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=jn.avila@free.fr \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox