Re: --no-decorate and %d in git-log(1)
From: Junio C Hamano <hidden>
Date: 2026-02-25 20:08:40
Marc Branchaud [off-list ref] writes:
BTW, --decorate=auto is documented as "if the output is going to a terminal, the ref names are shown as if `short` were given, otherwise no ref names are shown." But in my experiments %d still shows refs even when the output is piped to a file. Seems like another symptom of the same bug?
Isn't that documentation merely referring to "git log" without "--format=... %d ..." and not about the case where you explicitly ask for "%d"? That is, the description is there to explain the differences between git log --oneline --decorate=auto -1 git log --oneline --decorate=auto -1 | cat isn't it? I think --decorate=auto is the default so the above without --decorate=auto would behave similarly.
(Do people who use `--format` (with or without %d) *also* use `--decorate`? It seems like the two are naturally exclusive, even if the code allows them both.)
That is an interesting question, but I am not sure if it affects how we decide to resolve this discussion.