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@nasamuffin nasamuffin commented Aug 27, 2025

Ach, sorry for the noise, turns out it touched both revert and cherry-pick, might as well do the docs for both.

CC: Andrew Jeffrey andrew@aj.id.au
cc: Phillip Wood phillip.wood123@gmail.com
cc: Emily Shaffer nasamuffin@google.com

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Preview email sent as pull.2042.git.git.1756278923062.gitgitgadget@gmail.com

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Submitted as pull.2042.git.git.1756279041881.gitgitgadget@gmail.com

To fetch this version into FETCH_HEAD:

git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/ pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v1

To fetch this version to local tag pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v1:

git fetch --no-tags https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/ tag pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v1

In f873a27 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
add it now, to both commands.

Reported-by: Andrew Jeffrey <andrew@aj.id.au>
Signed-off-by: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
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Submitted as pull.2042.v2.git.git.1756279345929.gitgitgadget@gmail.com

To fetch this version into FETCH_HEAD:

git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/ pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v2

To fetch this version to local tag pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v2:

git fetch --no-tags https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/ tag pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v2

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On the Git mailing list, "Andrew Jeffery" wrote (reply to this):

On Wed, 27 Aug 2025, at 16:52, Emily Shaffer via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
>
> In f873a273d1 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
> we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
> but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
> have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
> add it now, to both commands.
>
> Reported-by: Andrew Jeffrey <andrew@aj.id.au>

Thanks!

My only input is my surname is spelled the surprising way: s/Jeffrey/Jeffery/ :) Hopefully someone can fix that up when applying it rather than needing a v3!

Andrew

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On the Git mailing list, Phillip Wood wrote (reply to this):

Hi Emily

On 27/08/2025 08:22, Emily Shaffer via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
> > In f873a273d1 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
> we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
> but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
> have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
> add it now, to both commands.

I agree that it would be helpful to have a some rev-list options included here but this adds a huge amount of text to the man page which comes before the documentation for frequently used options like "--continue". I'm not sure all of the new text is relevant to cherry-pick and revert. For instance do we need to document --bisect, -cherry-mark and --boundary here? I'm not sure the History Simplification and Commit Formatting sections are relevant either. There are already a bunch of ifdefs in rev-list-options.adoc that change what's included depending on which command we're documenting, maybe we should add some more for the cherry-pick and revert documentation?

Thanks

Phillip> Reported-by: Andrew Jeffrey <andrew@aj.id.au>
> Signed-off-by: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
> ---
>      cherry-pick: document rev-list options
>      >      Ach, sorry for the noise, turns out it touched both revert and
>      cherry-pick, might as well do the docs for both.
> > Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2042%2Fnasamuffin%2Fcherry-pick-docs-v2
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v2
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2042
> > Range-diff vs v1:
> >   1:  fa352ccda08 ! 1:  f41cb4e8abc cherry-pick: document rev-list options
>       @@ Metadata
>        Author: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
>        >         ## Commit message ##
>       -    cherry-pick: document rev-list options
>       +    doc: document rev-list opts in revert, cherry-pick
>        >            In f873a273d1 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
>       -    we added a handful of new options to `git cherry-pick`, but did not
>       -    document them except by example. We have a nice shorthand for adding the
>       -    rev-list documentation, so let's add it now.
>       +    we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
>       +    but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
>       +    have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
>       +    add it now, to both commands.
>        >            Reported-by: Andrew Jeffrey <andrew@aj.id.au>
>            Signed-off-by: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
>       @@ Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc: fail unless one of `--empty=keep` or `--allo
>         SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
>         ---------------------
>         include::sequencer.adoc[]
>       +
>       + ## Documentation/git-revert.adoc ##
>       +@@ Documentation/git-revert.adoc: include::rerere-options.adoc[]
>       + 	configuration variable can be used to enable this option by
>       + 	default.
>       +
>       ++include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
>       +
>       + SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
>       + ---------------------
> > >   Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc | 2 ++
>   Documentation/git-revert.adoc      | 1 +
>   2 files changed, 3 insertions(+)
> > diff --git a/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc b/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> index 42b41923d5f..03848aa9f21 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> @@ -174,6 +174,8 @@ fail unless one of `--empty=keep` or `--allow-empty` are specified.
>   >   include::rerere-options.adoc[]
>   > +include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
> +
>   SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
>   ---------------------
>   include::sequencer.adoc[]
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-revert.adoc b/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
> index ffba365e639..28827807473 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
> @@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ include::rerere-options.adoc[]
>   	configuration variable can be used to enable this option by
>   	default.
>   > +include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
>   >   SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
>   ---------------------
> > base-commit: f814da676ae46aac5be0a98b99373a76dee6cedb

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User Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> has been added to the cc: list.

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On the Git mailing list, Emily Shaffer wrote (reply to this):

On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 11:41 AM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Emily
>
> On 27/08/2025 08:22, Emily Shaffer via GitGitGadget wrote:
> > From: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
> >
> > In f873a273d1 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
> > we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
> > but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
> > have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
> > add it now, to both commands.
>
> I agree that it would be helpful to have a some rev-list options
> included here but this adds a huge amount of text to the man page which
> comes before the documentation for frequently used options like
> "--continue". I'm not sure all of the new text is relevant to
> cherry-pick and revert. For instance do we need to document --bisect,
> -cherry-mark and --boundary here? I'm not sure the History
> Simplification and Commit Formatting sections are relevant either. There
> are already a bunch of ifdefs in rev-list-options.adoc that change
> what's included depending on which command we're documenting, maybe we
> should add some more for the cherry-pick and revert documentation?

I thought too that the rev-list-options.adoc is probably longer than
it needs to be for most of the places where we include it. I wonder if
it's worth breaking that inclusion into smaller, more relevant parts?

Full disclosure, if that's the solution we want to go with, it will
take much longer for me to address it than for someone else to,
although I'm interested.

 - Emily

>
> Thanks
>
> Phillip> Reported-by: Andrew Jeffrey <andrew@aj.id.au>
> > Signed-off-by: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
> > ---
> >      cherry-pick: document rev-list options
> >
> >      Ach, sorry for the noise, turns out it touched both revert and
> >      cherry-pick, might as well do the docs for both.
> >
> > Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2042%2Fnasamuffin%2Fcherry-pick-docs-v2
> > Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2042/nasamuffin/cherry-pick-docs-v2
> > Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2042
> >
> > Range-diff vs v1:
> >
> >   1:  fa352ccda08 ! 1:  f41cb4e8abc cherry-pick: document rev-list options
> >       @@ Metadata
> >        Author: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
> >
> >         ## Commit message ##
> >       -    cherry-pick: document rev-list options
> >       +    doc: document rev-list opts in revert, cherry-pick
> >
> >            In f873a273d1 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
> >       -    we added a handful of new options to `git cherry-pick`, but did not
> >       -    document them except by example. We have a nice shorthand for adding the
> >       -    rev-list documentation, so let's add it now.
> >       +    we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
> >       +    but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
> >       +    have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
> >       +    add it now, to both commands.
> >
> >            Reported-by: Andrew Jeffrey <andrew@aj.id.au>
> >            Signed-off-by: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
> >       @@ Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc: fail unless one of `--empty=keep` or `--allo
> >         SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
> >         ---------------------
> >         include::sequencer.adoc[]
> >       +
> >       + ## Documentation/git-revert.adoc ##
> >       +@@ Documentation/git-revert.adoc: include::rerere-options.adoc[]
> >       +       configuration variable can be used to enable this option by
> >       +       default.
> >       +
> >       ++include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
> >       +
> >       + SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
> >       + ---------------------
> >
> >
> >   Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc | 2 ++
> >   Documentation/git-revert.adoc      | 1 +
> >   2 files changed, 3 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc b/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> > index 42b41923d5f..03848aa9f21 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> > +++ b/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> > @@ -174,6 +174,8 @@ fail unless one of `--empty=keep` or `--allow-empty` are specified.
> >
> >   include::rerere-options.adoc[]
> >
> > +include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
> > +
> >   SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
> >   ---------------------
> >   include::sequencer.adoc[]
> > diff --git a/Documentation/git-revert.adoc b/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
> > index ffba365e639..28827807473 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
> > +++ b/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
> > @@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ include::rerere-options.adoc[]
> >       configuration variable can be used to enable this option by
> >       default.
> >
> > +include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
> >
> >   SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
> >   ---------------------
> >
> > base-commit: f814da676ae46aac5be0a98b99373a76dee6cedb
>

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User Emily Shaffer <nasamuffin@google.com> has been added to the cc: list.

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On the Git mailing list, Junio C Hamano wrote (reply to this):

"Emily Shaffer via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> From: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
>
> In f873a273d1 (revert: accept arbitrary rev-list options, 2010-06-14),
> we added a handful of new options to `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`,
> but did not document them except by example to `cherry-pick` only. We
> have a nice shorthand for adding the rev-list documentation, so let's
> add it now, to both commands.

That's a blast from the past.

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc b/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> index 42b41923d5f..03848aa9f21 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-cherry-pick.adoc
> @@ -174,6 +174,8 @@ fail unless one of `--empty=keep` or `--allow-empty` are specified.
>  
>  include::rerere-options.adoc[]
>  
> +include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
> +

Are there options that rev-list family of commands take that are
nonsense in the context of cherry-pick (and revert)?

The rev-list-options.adoc[] file is designed to be included from
different places, so for example it omits certain things from
appearing in the output.  E.g., by doing things like:

    `--ignore-missing`::
            Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
            the bad input was not given.

    ifndef::git-rev-list[]
    `--bisect`::
            Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
            was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
            bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
            line.
    endif::git-rev-list[]

and not doing

    :git-rev-list: 1
    include::rev-list-options.adoc[]

we can exclude specific parts of the rev-list-options.adoc from
inclusion.

I know that the implementation took a blind^Wstupid route to allow
everything, but documenting them for unsuspecting general public
would make the harm larger.  They wouldn't have even imagined to
type

    git cherry-pick --graph master

if they weren't told that the command took such a nonsense option.
Have you reviewed what is in rev-list-options.adoc and thought about
excluding certain parts when the file is included in either
git-cherry-pick.adoc or git-revert.adoc?

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