Currently, when we try to resolve @{<N>} or @{<date>} when the reflog doesn't go back far enough, we get errors like: # on branch master $ git show @{10000} fatal: Log for '' only has 7 entries. $ git show @{10000.days.ago} warning: Log for '' only goes back to Tue, 21 May 2013 14:14:45 +0530. ... # detached HEAD case $ git show @{10000} fatal: Log for '' only has 2005 entries. $ git show master@{10000} fatal: Log for 'master' only has 7 entries. The empty string '' is ugly, inconsistent, and failing to convey information about whose logs we are inspecting. Change this so that we get: # on branch master $ git show @{10000} fatal: Log for 'master' only has 7 entries. $ git show @{10000.days.ago} warning: Log for 'master' only goes back to Tue, 21 May 2013 14:14:45 +0530. ... # detached HEAD case $ git show @{10000} fatal: Log for 'HEAD' only has 2005 entries. $ git show master@{10000} fatal: Log for 'master' only has 7 entries. Simple, consistent, and informative; suitable for output even from plumbing commands like rev-parse. Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@xxxxxxxxx> --- sha1_name.c | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) diff --git a/sha1_name.c b/sha1_name.c index 416a673..b7e008a 100644 --- a/sha1_name.c +++ b/sha1_name.c @@ -517,6 +517,16 @@ static int get_sha1_basic(const char *str, int len, unsigned char *sha1) } if (read_ref_at(real_ref, at_time, nth, sha1, NULL, &co_time, &co_tz, &co_cnt)) { + if (!len) { + if (!prefixcmp(real_ref, "refs/heads/")) { + str = real_ref + 11; + len = strlen(real_ref + 11); + } else { + /* detached HEAD */ + str = "HEAD"; + len = 4; + } + } if (at_time) warning("Log for '%.*s' only goes " "back to %s.", len, str, -- 1.8.3.rc3.10.g6f8d616 -- 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