Re: What's in git.git (stable)

Jakub Narebski [off-list ref] writes:

I'm just used to the way revisions are specified to other history
viewers: git-log (via git-rev-list), gitk, qgit. git-show-branch
is a bit odd man out here. "git-show-branch ref1 ref2 ref3"
is (without --more=n) like 

  git rev-list ref1 ref2 ref3 --not $(git merge-base ref1 ref2 ref3)

Which is handy for git-show-branch, but odd.

I hate to sound harsh, but...

Then you do not understand show-branch at all.  Not having to
say the "--not merge-base" part is NOT about being handy, but is
the central part of what show-branch does.  The command is about
showing the commits that are on only some of the branches but
not on others.

Other commands you listed above are all based on rev-list logic
of painting commits in two colors (either UNINTERESTING or
~UNINTERESTING) and being able to combine the set using "A..B",
"^A B", and "A B --not C" notations all make sense.  All
combinations work as set operation -- start from union of
commits reachable from positive (i.e. not prefixed with ^) refs,
and subtract set of commits reachable from any negative ref.

What show-branch does cannot be expressed with that two-color
logic; it needs to use N colors for N input refs.  After digging
from the tips deep enough, you would find the common merge-base
and after that point it is not interesting to show anything
anymore, and that is how it stops output.