Re: git reflog --date

John Tapsell [off-list ref] writes:

On 21 October 2014 19:06, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

John Tapsell [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

For me, writing "git reflog @{now}"  is a lot less intuitive than "git
reflog --date"

Currently the top google search for this question is here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17369254/is-there-a-way-to-cause-git-reflog-to-show-a-date-alongside-each-entry

Which doesn't mention "@{now}"   at all.

I would say that a site where cluelesses attempt to lead other
cluelesses is not the best source of information ;-), but that tells
us that either our docs are not read by people or they do not give
necessary information to them clearly enough.

quoted

My opinion:

1. Add --date   as an option to reflog.  Perhaps using the log.date
format as the default.
2. Document --date in the man page for "git reflog"
3. Document @{now}  in the man page for "git reflog"

Sound good?

The order of changes is questionable, but other than that, I think
that would be a good way forward.

Great - now I just need to persuade someone very nice nicely.. :-)

You should note that #1 is unworkable, as it would make:

    $ git log -g --date default

ambiguous.  Is it asking the timed reflog output using log.date
format on the "default" branch, or is it asking the timed reflog
output using the "default" time format on the HEAD?

You would need to disambiguate by

    $ git log -g --date -- default ;# on default branch
    $ git log -g --date default -- ;# using default time format

or something, which means --date can be the last dashed option on
the command line, and also you close the door for us to ever add
another dashed command line option that takes an optional argument.

So the best you could do is

    1. Add document commit@{timestamp} vs commit@{count} notation
       we have for "git log" also to "git reflog", perhaps?

    2. Document --date=<style> (but not --date alone) as a way to
       trigger timed output for reflog entries, and refer to that
       from "--walk-reflogs" option description as "see also".