Junio C Hamano wrote:
> It almost feels as if you want to have something more like
>
> -L <begin>,<end>[,<path>]
>
> where <path> is mandatory for the first use of -L (i.e. missing ,<path>
> means the same path from the previous -L that has one) to make it clear
> that this is completely different from the normal pathspec.
I think that would just needlessly break the analogy to git-blame.[0]
With the current code,
git blame -L 2,3 <path>
git log -L 2,3 <path>
work the same. Multiple -L options could be retrofitted to git-blame,
making
git {blame,log} -L 2,3 -L 4,5 <path>
work as expected.
As long as you only give a single path, even blame disambiguates in
favour of the filename:
git blame -L 2,3 master # wants a file 'master'
It only starts breaking down as soon as you put the -L further away
from the filename:
git blame -L 2,3 master master # looks for the file master:master
git blame master -L 2,3 master # ditto
git log -L 2,3 master master # errors out since the second file has no -L [1]
git log master -L 2,3 master # looks for the file master:master
And as you have noted, the -- can also cause weird effects. Currently
git log -L 2,3 --branches # error
git log -L 2,3 ./--branches # ok
git log -L 2,3 -- --branches # error
The last one is unfortunate, but fixing it while allowing a natural
positioning of the -L would require parsing the -L after a --. That's
just as inconsistent, only in a different way.
[0] It also requires special support from shell completion.
[1] I agree with erroring out but I think the message wrongly
recommends path filtering (since that doesn't work well with
renames):
fatal: Path master need a -L <range> option
If you want follow the history of the whole file whether to using 'git log' without -L or using 'git log -L 1,$ <path>'
Bo, can you please change it to e.g.:
fatal: Path 'master' needs a -L<range> option
If you want to follow the history of the whole file, use 'git log -L 1,$ <path>'
--
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch
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