Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] format-patch: better commit list for cover letter

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:54:50 -0800

Mirko Faina <[email-masked]> writes:

> Often when sending patch series there's a need to clarify to the
> reviewer what's the purpose of said series, since it might be difficult
> to understand it from reading the commits messages one by one.
>
> "git format-patch" provides the useful "--cover-letter" flag to declare
> if we want it to generate a template for us to use. By default it will
> generate a "git shortlog" of the changes, which developers find less
> useful than they'd like, mainly because the shortlog groups commits by
> author, and gives no obvious chronological order.

All true.

> Teach the make_cover_letter() a better cover letter format to replace
> the current. The format can be seen from the following example:
>
>     [1/3] abcc234s: this is a summary
>     [2/3] 73s84ns2: this is another summary

Two things to consider.

 (1) Drop the abbreviated object name, as they are useless garbage.
     The result of applying these patches will not have these commit
     object names anyway, so even when people find these messages on
     a mail archive in 6 months, they will not find the result of
     applying the patches from the official project history with
     these object names.

 (2) Do we need to make this optional, in order to allow those users
     who do prefer the current "shortlog" style that groups patches
     from the same person together to keep the original style?  I am
     undecided myself.