From: "Jacob Keller" <jacob.keller@xxxxxxxxx>
Hi,
On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 3:51 PM, Philip Oakley <philipoakley@xxxxxxx>
wrote:
The branch description will be included in 'git format-patch
--cover-letter' and in 'git pull-request' emails. Tell the reader.
While here, clarify that the description may be a multi-line
explanation of the purpose of the branch's patch series.
Signed-off-by: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@xxxxxxx>
---
This is a short doc patch to follow up $gmane/277628 where Johannes
Schindelin noted this otherwise undocumented feature.
Thanks for this.
Documentation/git-branch.txt | 3 ++-
Documentation/git-format-patch.txt | 2 +-
Documentation/git-request-pull.txt | 3 ++-
3 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-branch.txt
b/Documentation/git-branch.txt
index a67138a..79ad1c7 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-branch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-branch.txt
@@ -197,7 +197,8 @@ start-point is either a local or remote-tracking
branch.
--edit-description::
Open an editor and edit the text to explain what the branch
is
- for, to be used by various other commands (e.g.
`request-pull`).
+ for, to be used by various other commands (e.g.
`format-patch`
+ and `request-pull`). Multi-line explanations may be used.
Are these the only locations? Just want to make sure while we're
updating it.
Searching for 'description' has many hits so it's not easy to be really
sure. I had thought I'd asked an SO question ($SO/q/6866838) about
branch descriptions many years ago, whose answers indicated it was
little used, but actually I'd asked about the repo description (doh)
which AFAICT is only used by gitweb.
A bit more delving found http://stackoverflow.com/a/8858853/717355 which
suggests `git merge` would use it, but with no mention in the `git
merge --help` man page. A link to the `git fmt-merge-msg` ("for internal
use by scripts") finally provides the extra:
merge.branchdesc
In addition to branch names, populate the log message with the branch
description text associated with them. Defaults to false.
However, that config key isn't listed in `git config --help` man page,
so that capability is a bit buried. (note the default!)
It still means that my patch is incomplete in its aim to bring out these
possible broader usages.
I haven't yet looked at the mail archives to see if there is more around
the time of those introductions.
Otherwise, for what it's worth...
Acked-by: Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@xxxxxxxxx>
For the future, it would also be nice to allow some use within `git
branch` for a `--show[-full]-description` option such that when branch
info is being given (-a, -l, etc), then the descriptions for the local
branches (which may have descriptions) are displayed, either as a single
first line, or as a full multi-line description. But that's coding &
review for the future.
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