describe-doc: clarify default length of abbreviation
Clarify the default length used for the abbreviated form used for commits in git describe. The behavior was modified in Git 2.11.0, but the documentation was not updated to clarify the new behavior. Signed-off-by: Anders Höckersten <anders@hockersten.se> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Anders Höckersten committed
May 17, 2021 at 05:53 UTC
bfe35a61653c5789c9038b3fe9925941cf10f623
1 file changed
+9
-5
Documentation/git-describe.txt
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-5
@@ -63,9 +63,10 @@ OPTIONS
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Automatically implies --tags.
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--abbrev=<n>::
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- Instead of using the default 7 hexadecimal digits as the
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- abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or as many digits
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- as needed to form a unique object name. An <n> of 0
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+ Instead of using the default number of hexadecimal digits (which
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+ will vary according to the number of objects in the repository with
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+ a default of 7) of the abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or
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+ as many digits as needed to form a unique object name. An <n> of 0
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will suppress long format, only showing the closest tag.
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--candidates=<n>::
@@ -139,8 +140,11 @@ at the end.
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The number of additional commits is the number
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of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent".
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-The hash suffix is "-g" + unambiguous abbreviation for the tip commit
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-of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`).
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+The hash suffix is "-g" + an unambigous abbreviation for the tip commit
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+of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`). The
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+length of the abbreviation scales as the repository grows, using the
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+approximate number of objects in the repository and a bit of math
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+around the birthday paradox, and defaults to a minimum of 7.
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The "g" prefix stands for "git" and is used to allow describing the version of
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a software depending on the SCM the software is managed with. This is useful
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in an environment where people may use different SCMs.