Re: [PATCH WIP 0/3] git log --exclude

2011/10/5 Matthieu Moy [off-list ref]:

Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

This series adds --exclude that uses .gitignore mechanism remove
commits whose changes that are _entirely_ excluded.

I'd see this --exclude as the opposite of specifying files, i.e. in a
repository containing directories A, B and C,

git log --exclude=B

would be the same as

git log A C

I think I emphasized it too much. "git log --exclude=B/ A B C" should
be equivalent to "git log A C". If changes touch A or C, then no
matter they touch B, the commit will always be in. If changes only
touch B, neither A nor B, then the commit is removed, exactly the same
case with "git log A C".

quoted

Because it uses .gitignore mechanism, beware that these patterns do
not behave exactly like pathspecs

if you specify --exclude=B, then A/.../B, C/.../B are all removed. A
subtle difference between pathspec and .gitignore.

and because "git log --stat A C" (or --patch) will show the diff only
for A and C for commits touching all directories.

I'll take care of --patch and friends later. They both (--patch and
commit pruning) use the same diff mechanism, if we get it right for
for commit pruning, --patch will come nicely.
-- 
Duy