Subject: Re: [PATCH] describe-doc:fix a obscure error description in the git log documentation

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 May 2021 15:57:17 +0900

Đoàn Trần Công Danh  <[email-masked]> writes:

> Please use your real name and wrap your commit message at 50
> characters for subject line and 72 characters for body.

Very good suggestions.  Thanks for raising these issues.

> The default option is documented correctly as short.
> Please check out builtin/log.c:decorate_callback and
> builtin/log.c:parse_decoration_style.
>
> Below command print nothing in my machine:
>
> 	git log --decorate -1 >/tmp/default
> 	git log --decorate=short -1 >/tmp/short
> 	cmp /tmp/default /tmp/short
>
> I'm curious about your config and/or command invocation.
> From the code, I can't guess which scenario that's different.

You two are thinking about two "defaults", I think.  If a --decorate
option you give does not say which kind of decoration you want, by
default, you see the short output.  The above shows that.

If you do not give any --decorate option, the command behaves as if
you gave --decorate=auto, which is what the patch author wanted to
say, I think.

> I think you meant:
>
> 	git log -1 >/tmp/no-decorate

Yes, and this (with redirection to file), I think you do not get any
decoration---that is what you get from --decorate=auto, i.e.

	git log --decorate=auto -1 >/tmp/auto-decorate

I think the default discussed in the paragraph the patch touches is
"what happens if you do not say what kind, i.e. "--decorate" not
"--decorate=<what kind>", so "the default is 'short'" is correct,
but at the same time, "even if you do not say --decorate, you'll see
short decoration when on a terminal" is worth mentioning somewhere.