RE: how to display file history?

quoted

quoted

git log --stat -- A

very handy indeed.

I was surprised on initial use that --stat is
limited to the file specified in "A" and doesn't
expand to describe the entire commit that touches "A".
(ie. the stat output is a subset of what is associated
with the displayed commit comments).

This, of course, is clear now, it just isn't what
I expected on first use.

Well,  you can obviously have your cake and eat it too (ie 
"--full-diff").

I don't often end up using the "--full-diff" thing. It's almost never 
actually worth it until I find the diff that I actually start caring 
about, and the full diff just makes it harder to see the part 
I explicitly told git I was interested in.

sounds good.

So the default "show only diffs for the files asked for" 
behaviour is in my opinion much superior (and it used to be the only

one),

because the "show the whole thing" part ends up being something you use

only once 

you've already skimmed the default case and decide to go deeper.

I agree.

Of course, "gitk" ends up using the full diff by default in its diff 
window. I'm not convinced that's the right thing, but usually 
when I use gitk I'm primarily looking at the history and the commit
messages to decide if it's a relevant one, not the diff, so I don't

think 

it matters.

Yeah, I agree that gitk is fine how it is.

The only part I don't agree with above is the word "obviously".
'--full-diff --stats' didn't jump out at me from the man page.

To be fair, yes, I should probably take the time to read the docs
through
and not rely on the man pages, they've changed a lot since I last
looked.

-Len