The documentation says --max-count=<number> Limit the number of commits output but when used with -S as in git log -Sfoo --max-count=N it acts as "inspect only the N first commits", i.e. if `foo' is not present on any of the first N commits no output is shown. Using other filtering options (such as `--grep=' or `-- somepath') together with --max-count=N will output at most N commits regardless of the position on the history of those commits, as expected. Tested with git 1.7.1 and 1.7.4. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html