On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 11:15 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Julien Cretel <j.cretel@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > >> As of Git 2.3.0, the output of "git log --decorate" is ambiguous as to >> whether the HEAD is detached or not. > > It sounds as if you are reporting some regression, but has any > version of Git ever done so, or is this just a new feature that > does not exist yet? Apologies; I should have explained myself better. I'm not reporting a regression; as far as I can tell, "git log --decorate" has always been ambiguous in that way. > >> More specifically, consider the following output of "git log --decorate": >> >> 4d860e9 (HEAD, master, dev) Remove trailing whitespace >> >> Whether the HEAD is attached to master or detached, the output is the same. >> Could/should "git log --decorate" be modified to provide this information? >> Perhaps something along the lines of >> >> 4d860e9 (HEAD -> master, dev) Remove trailing whitespace >> >> or >> >> 4d860e9 (HEAD = master, dev) Remove trailing whitespace >> > > I personally do not see a need for such a differenciation. Why does > one even need to know, and is it worth the cost of computing at the > runtime? I believe the "--decorate" flag to be quite popular. I personally like to run "git log --decorate --graph --oneline --all" to quickly get an idea of the state of a repo. In my experience, many users do the same, to the point that they feel the need to define an alias for this command; see the top answers to http://stackoverflow.com/q/1057564/2541573. My problem with the current output of "git log --decorate" is the asymmetry, so to speak. If the HEAD is detached but pointing at a commit that isn't any branch's tip, then the user can be sure the HEAD detached; however, if at least one branch points to the current commit, there is no way to tell. I must admit I haven't given much thought about the cost involved, but I can't imagine performance would take a big hit. Would it? > > Most of the time when I am on detached HEAD it is either a few > commits behind a tip, or a few commits ahead of a tip. -- 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