Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] extend --abbrev support to diff-patch format

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

On Sun, Aug 09, 2020 at 12:01:35PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted

Đoàn Trần Công Danh  [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Đoàn Trần Công Danh (2):
  revision: differentiate if --no-abbrev asked explicitly
  diff: extend --abbrev support to diff-patch format

It was not clear, at least to me at all, what these patches are
trying to achieve (i.e. what end-users appreciate) until I saw the
code change X-<.

The changes to fill_metainfo() make sense to me.  It just needs log
messages that explain the intent better.  They do not even make it
clear that they want to make the abbreviation length of the object
names on the "index $from..$to $mode" lines configurable.

After reading the original including cover letter, I'm still confused
using why --full-index is not the solution for most cases. Perhaps that
would be worth touching on, as well.

True.  

Presumably you could force some stability without sacrificing line
length limit by using --abbrev=12 instead of --full-index but I do
not think it is such a big deal.  But it does look odd that we use
a special/single-purpose option --full-index to control the length
only for those two object names on the "index" line, when all the
other object names we see are controlled with the --abbrev option.