Re: [PATCH] allow user aliases for the --author parameter

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

For git commit --author abbreviations at least I would typically need
only very few entries (be it per repo or globally), which means they can
be much shorter (than my mua aliases) in order to be unique, and I don't
really want an extra file for that.

I think this depends on your situation. In your case, it sounds like you
want to configure a few names that frequently have --author fields for
your specific workflow. For me, even though only 1% of the people in my
mua's alias file might send me patches, 99% of the people I would want
to use --author on are in my mua's alias file.

So while there are may only be a few needed entries, they are already
there for me. Of course, I don't really use --author much, since most
people I talk to are already git users. ;) So I am extrapolating a bit.

Another potential source of this information is the existing commits.  If
you are communicating with the same set of people already, you already
have the information in your repository.  I suspect Michael's "selected
few co-workers that would comfortably fit in a small list of config
entries without need for any external text file" use case would be better
served by an approach to look into existing commits.

I often use "git who Jeff" alias to fill the recipient of my e-mails with
this alias:

    [alias]
        who = "!sh -c 'git log -1 --pretty=\"format:%an <%ae>\" --author=\"$1\"' -"
        one = "!sh -c 'git show -s --pretty=\"format:%h (%s, %ai\" \"$@\" | sed -e \"s/ [012][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]:[0-5][0-9] [-+][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]$/)/\"' -"