On Wed, Apr 08, 2020 at 01:22:03AM +0000, Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote: > The default file history simplification of "git log -- <path>" or > "git rev-list -- <path>" focuses on providing the smallest set of > commits that first contributed a change. The revision walk greatly > restricts the set of walked commits by visiting only the first > TREESAME parent of a merge commit, when one exists. This means > that portions of the commit-graph are not walked, which can be a > performance benefit, but can also "hide" commits that added changes > but were ignored by a merge resolution. > [...] Thanks for a really great description of the problem. Playing around with the patch, I found one curiosity. Try this: git log --graph --oneline origin -- GIT-VERSION-GEN >old git log --graph --oneline --include-diversions \ origin -- GIT-VERSION-GEN >new diff -u old new The first hunk has: @@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ * 20769079d2 Git 2.12-rc2 * 5588dbffbd Git 2.12-rc1 * 6e3a7b3398 Git 2.12-rc0 +* 0a45050a14 Merge branch 'rj/git-version-gen-do-not-force-abbrev' * a7659747c2 GIT-VERSION-GEN: do not force abbreviation length used by 'describe' * 8d7a455ed5 Start post 2.11 cycle * 454cb6bd52 Git 2.11 which makes sense. That merge brought in a7659747c2, and the other side hadn't touched it. But I can't tell from the output how the two are related. Nor can I just add "-p" to the invocation; after we've simplified, it has only a single parent, but it's TREESAME to that parent. So it has no diff. I actually think the most descriptive output here would be something like: * 6e3a7b3398 Git 2.12-rc0 * 0a45050a14 Merge branch 'rj/git-version-gen-do-not-force-abbrev' |\ | * a7659747c2 GIT-VERSION-GEN: do not force abbreviation length used by 'describe' |/ * Start post 2.11 cycle I.e., leaving both parents intact for a "diversion" merge. But maybe that would have secondary effects in other places. -Peff