Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] format-patch: fix From header in cover letter

From: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 01:34:00 -0500

On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 07:22:08AM +0100, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:

> One thing that made me stop though is the folowing sentence in
> git-format-patch(1):
> 
>   Use ident in the From: header of each commit email.
> 
> The option explicitly mentions that we use "--from" for the commit
> emails, only, and that may be read as implying that it's not used for
> the cover letter.
> 
> I don't really know whether that wording is intentional, and I cannot
> come up with a good reason why it should be. But I'd say that the
> wording is something we should adjust.

I think that wording comes from me back in 2013, and I just never gave
any thought to cover-letter generation by format-patch itself. I never
use it (and I probably forgot it even existed, given that most people
would use send-email's cover letter generation, and I do my own thing
with mutt).

So I think the direction of the patch is good, and I agree it would make
sense to clarify the documentation.

-Peff