This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
'--date-order' option may also be specified.
+ifdef::git-rev-list[]
+--count::
+ Print a number stating how many commits would have been
+ listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
+ with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
+ right commits, separated by a tab.
+endif::git-rev-list[]
+
+
ifndef::git-rev-list[]
Diff Formatting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-c::
- This flag changes the way a merge commit is displayed. It shows
- the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
+ With this option, diff output for a merge commit
+ shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
which were modified from all parents.
the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
one of them without modification.
+-m::
+
+ This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
+ regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
+ and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
+ the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
+ in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
+ brought _into_ the then-current branch.
+
-r::
Show recursive diffs.
merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
commits contributing to this merge.
+--ancestry-path::
+
+ When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
+ or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
+ directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
+ 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
+ and ancestors of 'commit2'.
+
A more detailed explanation follows.
Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
.-A---N---O
- / /
+ / / /
I---------D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
sides of the merge are never walked.
-Finally, there is a fourth simplification mode available:
-
--simplify-merges::
First, build a history graph in the same way that
removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
--
+Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
+
+--ancestry-path::
+
+ Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
+ chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
+ range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
+ commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
++
+As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
++
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ D---E-------F
+ / \ \
+ B---C---G---H---I---J
+ / \
+ A-------K---------------L--M
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++
+A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
+but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
+what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
+that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
+example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
+of course).
++
+When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
+bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
+only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
+excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '\--ancestry-path'
+option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
++
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ E-------F
+ \ \
+ G---H---I---J
+ \
+ L--M
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME