Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] format-patch: add commitListFormat config

From: Mirko Faina <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2026 22:40:09 +0100

On Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 01:14:13AM +0100, Mirko Faina wrote:
> > > +		strbuf_release(&tmp);
> > > +		return 0;
> > > +	}
> > >  	if (!strcmp(var, "format.outputdirectory")) {
> > >  		FREE_AND_NULL(cfg->config_output_directory);
> > >  		return git_config_string(&cfg->config_output_directory, var, value);
> > > @@ -2318,6 +2333,13 @@ int cmd_format_patch(int argc,
> > >  		goto done;
> > >  	total = list.nr;
> > >  
> > > +	if (cover_letter_fmt && (strcmp(cover_letter_fmt, "shortlog") && strncmp(cover_letter_fmt, "log:", 4))) {
> > 
> > Overly long line.
> 
> Will fix.
> 
> > Stepping back a bit, even if we do not validate the format *here*,
> > shouldn't the code that does use cover_letter_fmt later in the
> > control flow *already* be checking the validity of the format and
> > complaining?  If that happens early enough, perhaps we do not want
> > to have an extra "early check and die" here.
> 
> That is true, and initially I did not introduce a check here, but
> make_cover_letter() is called after the cover letter file has already
> been created. Failing before format-patch could create a file or print
> anything on screeen seemed more clean to me, that's the only reason
> there's a check there.

May I have a confirmation on this. Is it ok to leave the extra check
here or would you like me to remove it and just let make_cover_letter()
handle it?