Subject: Re: What's cooking in git.git (Mar 2026, #12)

From: Mirko Faina <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2026 02:20:41 +0200

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 05:10:42PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> * mf/format-patch-commit-list-format-doc (2026-03-27) 3 commits
>  - format-patch: removing unconditional wrapping
>  - docs: fix --commit-list-format related entries
>  - Merge branch 'mf/format-patch-commit-list-format' into mf/format-patch-commit-list-format-doc
>  (this branch uses mf/format-patch-commit-list-format and mf/format-patch-cover-letter-format.)
> 
>  Doc updates.
> 
>  Will merge to 'next'.
>  source: <[email-masked]>
>
> [...]
>
> * mf/format-patch-commit-list-format (2026-03-23) 9 commits
>   (merged to 'next' on 2026-03-24 at 0f5b6702eb)
>  + format-patch: --commit-list-format without prefix
>  + format-patch: add preset for --commit-list-format
>  + format-patch: wrap generate_commit_list_cover()
>  + format.commitListFormat: strip meaning from empty
>  + docs/pretty-formats: add %(count) and %(total)
>  + format-patch: rename --cover-letter-format option
>  + format-patch: refactor generate_commit_list_cover
>  + pretty.c: better die message %(count) and %(total)
>  + Merge branch 'mf/format-patch-cover-letter-format' into mf/format-patch-commit-list-format
>  (this branch is used by mf/format-patch-commit-list-format-doc; uses mf/format-patch-cover-letter-format.)
> 
>  Improve the recently introduced `git format-patch
>  --commit-list-format` (formerly `--cover-letter-format`) option,
>  including a new "modern" preset and better CLI ergonomics.
> 
>  Will merge to 'master'.
>  source: <[email-masked]>
>
> [...]
>
> * mf/format-patch-cover-letter-format (2026-03-06) 5 commits
>   (merged to 'next' on 2026-03-09 at e872adca7b)
>  + docs: add usage for the cover-letter fmt feature
>  + format-patch: add commitListFormat config
>  + format-patch: add ability to use alt cover format
>  + format-patch: move cover letter summary generation
>  + pretty.c: add %(count) and %(total) placeholders
>  (this branch is used by mf/format-patch-commit-list-format and mf/format-patch-commit-list-format-doc.)
> 
>  "git format-patch --cover-letter" learns to use a simpler format
>  instead of the traditional shortlog format to list its commits with
>  a new --cover-letter-format option and format.commitListFormat
>  configuration variable.
> 
>  Waiting for the follow-on topic.
>  source: <[email-masked]>

Hi, not sure how it works with incremental topics. Does this mean that
you won't merge mf/format-patch-cover-letter-format because it will be
merged anyway with mf/format-patch-commit-list-format? Does that mean
that you'll merge twice, once for mf/format-patch-commit-list-format and
a second time for mf/format-patch-commit-list-format-doc?

If that's the case I think you should not merge in
mf/format-patch-commit-list-format and wait for everything to be merged
with mf/format-patch-commit-list-format-doc. The latter is not just a
doc update, without it format-patch enforces the 72 character limit on
the commit list, not sure we want that in master.

Thank you