Subject: Re: Diffing submodule does not yield complete logs for merge commits

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 May 2015 10:04:31 -0700

Robert Dailey <[email-masked]> writes:

> In the meantime I'd like to ask, do we even need to add an option for
> this? What if we just make `diff.submodule log` not use
> --first-parent? This seems like a backward compatible change in of
> itself.

Why?  People have relied on submodule-log not to include all the
noise coming from individual commits on side branches and instead
appreciated seeing only the overview by merges of side branch topics
being listed---why is regressing the system to inconvenience these
existing users "a backward compatible change"?

> And it's simpler to implement. I can't think of a good
> justification to add more settings to an already hugely complex
> configuration scheme for such a minor difference in behavior.

Careful, as that argument can cut both ways.  If it is so a minor
difference in behaviour, perhaps we can do without not just an
option but a feature to omit --first-parent here.  That would be
even simpler to implement, as you do not have to do anything.

So, if you think the new behaviour can help _some_ users, then you
would need the feature and a knob to enable it, I would think.