Re: log --pretty accepts incomplete pre-defined formats

Sidhant Sharma [off-list ref] writes:

Recently while playing around with git log, I realized that it is possible to
pass incomplete (pre-defined) format names. For example, it is possible to use
`git log --pretty=one` instead of oneline and it would still output the logs in
oneline formatting. Same goes for other formats such as 'raw', 'short' and others.
I looked at the code and it seems that it is intentionally kept so. It this so?
I'm curious to know the reason behind keeping this so.

I actually am curious why somebody wants to know, as more modern
parts of the system allow option names abbreviated to unique
prefixes.  "Why can't I say 'log --pret=oneline' when I can say
'commit --ame'?" might be a more plausible puzzlement (and the
answer is "hysterical raisins").  Anyway, this seems to come from
6cdfd179 (commit: allow --pretty= args to be abbreviated,
2006-05-14), which was slightly tightend by aacd404e (Fix some
documentation typos and grammar, 2007-02-02).