Emma Brooks <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > On 2020-04-15 22:03:36-0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: >> > +Like 'email', but lines in the commit message starting with "From " >> > +(preceded by zero or more ">") are quoted with ">" so they aren't >> > +confused as starting a new commit. >> >> I am torn between rephrasing "starting a new commit" with "starting >> a new e-mail message", and keeping it as-is. Technically, the latter >> is more correct---the >From quoting is a technique to avoid starting >> a line with "From " in a reversible way, as pieces of e-mails in a >> single mailbox file needs to be split at the boundary. But in the >> context of format-patch, perhaps saying each "record" in the output >> file is a "commit" (not a piece of e-mail message) would probably be >> an acceptable white lie. > > While it is more accurate to say "starting a new email" rather than > "commit", I think it might be less confusing to say "starting a new > commit", if the reader isn't already familiar with how mbox works or its > variants, since the pretty formats control commit display and would > typically be thought about in terms of commits rather than emails. Exactly. That is why I said that I was torn between technical correctness and tool-specific description. "torn between" is quite different from "inclined to prefer the one different from yours" ;-)
