Subject: Re: [WIP-PATCH 0/2] send-email: refactor the email parser loop

From: Matthieu Moy <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2016 16:20:45 +0200

Samuel GROOT <[email-masked]> writes:

> (mbox) prefix was introduced by Ryan Anderson in 2005 (can't find the
> exact commit though), in opposition with the (non-mbox) format ("lots
> of email") that was used before.

That is actually from the original commit introducing send-email:
83b2443 ([PATCH] Add git-send-email-script - tool to send emails from
git-format-patch-script, 2005-07-31), i.e. ~3 month after Git was born.

At that time, user-friendlyness was not really a priority ;-).

> Is the "lots of email" format still used?

AFAICT, it was initially supported for backward compatibility, and then
no one removed it, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one actually used
it.

I vaguely remember a message from Ryan Anderson being surprised to see
the old format still supported, but I can't find it in the archives.

In any case:

- git log --grep 'lots of email' => shows only 83b2443
- git log -S'lots of email' => likewise
- git grep 'lots of email' => just one answer in a comment

I'm not sure the feature is even tested.

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/