Hi I'm trying to replicate the "oneline" log format and add notes to it. What I can't figure out:
1. What is the format string that corresponds to pretty format "oneline"?
2. What is the placeholder for the title-line? By searching for "title-line" in `man git log` I couldn't find anything. Surely this is in here somewhere?
Searching for `full-commit-message` also left me empty-handed.
3. How can I display notes (%N from `git notes add`) as in-line information (stripping away newlines at the end)?
How do I figure out the placeholders?
Suggestion for manpage improvements:
1. the pretty formats (oneline, short, ...) should come with a (t)format string that it corresponds to. They will act as great examples.
2. Make sure the descriptions of the pretty formats ("<title-line>", "<full-commit-message>", ...) are searchable.
Kind Regards,
David, kaddkaka, Moberg
On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 4:07 AM David Moberg [off-list ref] wrote:
Hi I'm trying to replicate the "oneline" log format and add notes to it. What I can't figure out:
1. What is the format string that corresponds to pretty format "oneline"?
2. What is the placeholder for the title-line? By searching for "title-line" in `man git log` I couldn't find anything. Surely this is in here somewhere?
Searching for `full-commit-message` also left me empty-handed.
3. How can I display notes (%N from `git notes add`) as in-line information (stripping away newlines at the end)?
How do I figure out the placeholders?
Suggestion for manpage improvements:
1. the pretty formats (oneline, short, ...) should come with a (t)format string that it corresponds to. They will act as great examples.
2. Make sure the descriptions of the pretty formats ("<title-line>", "<full-commit-message>", ...) are searchable.
Kind Regards,
David, kaddkaka, Moberg
I don't have the answer to everything, but for your goal, does
`--oneline --notes` not give you something close enough?
Since notes can be arbitrary text, making them "inline" with the
oneline format seems like an uphill battle to me.
--
D. Ben Knoble
On 10/24/25 10:06 AM, David Moberg wrote:
Hi I'm trying to replicate the "oneline" log format and add notes to
it. What I can't figure out:
1. What is the format string that corresponds to pretty format
"oneline"?
--oneline on terminal: %C(auto)%h%(decorate) %s
--oneline otherwise: %C(auto)%h %s
--format=oneline on terminal: %C(auto)%H%(decorate) %s
--format=oneline otherwise: %C(auto)%H %s
The %(decorate) part also depends on the config setting log.decorate.
2. What is the placeholder for the title-line? By searching for
"title-line" in `man git log` I couldn't find anything. Surely this
is in here somewhere? Searching for `full-commit-message` also left
me empty-handed.
%s for subject, %b for body, %B for the whole commit message (subject
and body). Email terms because Git was developed for Linux and commits
were exchanged on a mailing list, like we do here for Git.
3. How can I display notes (%N from `git notes add`) as in-line
information (stripping away newlines at the end)?
I don't think that's currently possible. You might assume that %w
(wrap) with a huge width would do it, but it doesn't.
How do I figure out the placeholders?
Suggestion for manpage improvements:
1. the pretty formats (oneline, short, ...) should come with a
(t)format string that it corresponds to. They will act as great
examples.
Good idea.
I would also prefer the named formats actually being implemented as
these format strings instead of being hand-coded -- for clarity,
simplicity and for proving that the placeholders are powerful enough.
2. Make sure the descriptions of the pretty formats ("<title-line>",
"<full-commit-message>", ...) are searchable.
Expanding the current one-word descriptions, e.g., with synonyms,
seems like a good idea. Care to send a doc patch?
René