The previous .mailmap example made it seem like .mailmap files are only useful for commits with a wrong address for an author, when they are about fixing the real name. Explained this better in the text, and replaced the existing example with a new one that hopefully makes things clearer. Signed-off-by: Adeodato Simó <dato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/git-shortlog.txt | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt b/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt index 7ccf31c..4a76b7f 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-shortlog.txt @@ -48,15 +48,41 @@ OPTIONS FILES ----- -If the file `.mailmap` exists, it will be used for mapping author -email addresses to a real author name. One mapping per line, first -the author name followed by the email address enclosed by -'<' and '>'. Use hash '#' for comments. Example: +If a file `.mailmap` exists in the toplevel directory of the repository, +it is used to map author email addresses to a canonical real name. This +can be used to coalesce together commits by the same person where their +name was spelled differently (whether with the same email address or +not). + +Each line in the file consists, in this order, of the canonical real name +of an author, whitespace, and an email address (enclosed by '<' and '>') +to map to the name. Use hash '#' for comments, either on their own line, +or after the email address. + +A canonical name may appear in more than one line, associated with +different email addresses, but it doesn't make sense for a given address +to appear more than once (if that happens, the latest line in which it +appears will take effect). + +So, for example, if your history contains commits by two authors, Jane +and Joe, whose names appear in the repository under several forms: + +------------ +Joe Developer <joe@xxxxxxxxxxx> +Joe R. Developer <joe@xxxxxxxxxxx> +Jane Doe <jane@xxxxxxxxxxx> +Jane Doe <jane@laptop.(none)> +Jane D. <jane@desktop.(none)> +------------ + +Then, supposing Joe wants his middle name initial used, and Jane prefers +her family name fully spelled out, a proper `.mailmap` file would be: ------------ -# Keep alphabetized -Adam Morrow <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> -Eve Jones <eve@laptop.(none)> +# Note how we don't need an entry for <jane@laptop.(none)>, because the +# real name of that author is correct already, and coalesced directly. +Jane Doe <jane@desktop.(none)> +Joe R. Developer <joe@xxxxxxxxxx> ------------ Author -- 1.6.1.307.g07803 -- 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