Re: [PATCH] Specify a precision for the length of a subject string

Nathan Panike [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

quoted

$ git log --pretty='%h %30s' d165204 -1

In C's formatted output this syntax denotes a minimum field width, not a
precision, so it will probably be surprising to many people.

C semantics are already broken because (from git-log(1))

"If you add a - (minus sign) after % of a placeholder, line-feeds that
immediately precede the expansion are deleted if and only if the placeholder
expands to an empty string."

rather than indicating justification of the field.

There's no reason to make it _worse_ though...

For your desired feature, why not just use the C printf syntax for this
functionality, a leading dot before the max length?  E.g. "%.30s".

-miles

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