Re: [PATCH 3/3] range-diff(docs): explain how to specify commit ranges

[Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>]

Hi Junio,

On Thu, 21 Jan 2021, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> "Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
> writes:
>
> > From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> >
> > There are three forms, depending whether the user specifies one, two or
> > three non-option arguments. We've never actually explained how this
> > works in the manual, so let's explain it.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> > ---
> >  Documentation/git-range-diff.txt | 13 +++++++++++++
> >  1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt b/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
> > index 9701c1e5fdd..76359baf26d 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
> > @@ -28,6 +28,19 @@ Finally, the list of matching commits is shown in the order of the
> >  second commit range, with unmatched commits being inserted just after
> >  all of their ancestors have been shown.
> >
> > +There are three ways to specify the commit ranges:
> > +
> > +- `<range1> <range2>`: Either commit range can be of the form
> > +  `<base>..<rev>`, `<rev>^!` or `<rev>^-<n>`. See `SPECIFYING RANGES`
> > +  in linkgit:gitrevisions[7] for more details.
>
> Good.
>
> > +- `<rev1>...<rev2>`. This resembles the symmetric ranges mentioned in
> > +  the `SPECIFYING RANGES` section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7], and is
> > +  equivalent to `<base>..<rev1> <base>..<rev2>` where `<base>` is the
> > +  merge base as obtained via `git merge-base <rev1> <rev2>`.
>
> Does this merely resemble?  Isn't it exactly what a symmetric range is?

No, it is not exactly what a symmetric range is because `range-diff`
treats both arms of the symmetric range independently, as two distinct
non-symmetric ranges.

> > +- `<base> <rev1> <rev2>`: This is equivalent to `<base>..<rev1>
> > +  <base>..<rev2>`.
>
> Nice to see this documented.

Yes. I was rather surprised that I had overlooked that in my original
submission of the `range-diff` command.

Ciao,
Dscho