Git v1.6.6 Release Notes
========================
-In this release, "git fsck" defaults to "git fsck --full" and checks
-packfiles, and because of this it will take much longer to complete
-than before. If you prefer a quicker check only on loose objects (the
-old default), you can say "git fsck --no-full". This has been
-supported by 1.5.4 and newer versions of git, so it is safe to write
-it in your script even if you use slightly older git on some of your
-machines.
+Notes on behaviour change
+-------------------------
+
+ * In this release, "git fsck" defaults to "git fsck --full" and
+ checks packfiles, and because of this it will take much longer to
+ complete than before. If you prefer a quicker check only on loose
+ objects (the old default), you can say "git fsck --no-full". This
+ has been supported by 1.5.4 and newer versions of git, so it is
+ safe to write it in your script even if you use slightly older git
+ on some of your machines.
+
+Preparing yourselves for compatibility issues in 1.7.0
+------------------------------------------------------
+
+In git 1.7.0, which is planned to be the release after 1.6.6, there will
+be a handful of behaviour changes that will break backward compatibility.
+
+These changes were discussed long time ago and existing behaviours have
+been identified as more problematic to the userbase than keeping them for
+the sake of backward compatibility.
+
+When necessary, a transition strategy for existing users has been designed
+not to force them running around setting configuration variables and
+updating their scripts in order to either keep the traditional behaviour
+or adjust to the new behaviour, on the day their sysadmin decides to install
+the new version of git. When we switched from "git-foo" to "git foo" in
+1.6.0, even though the change had been advertised and the transition
+guide had been provided for a very long time, the users procrastinated
+during the entire transtion period, and ended up panicking on the day
+their sysadmins updated their git installation. We are trying to avoid
+repeating that unpleasantness in the 1.7.0 release.
+
+For changes decided to be in 1.7.0, commands that will be affected
+have been much louder to strongly discourage such procrastination, and
+they continue to be in this release. If you have been using recent
+versions of git, you would have seen warnings issued when you used
+features whose behaviour will change, with a clear instruction on how
+to keep the existing behaviour if you want to. You hopefully are
+already well prepared.
+
+Of course, we have also been giving "this and that will change in
+1.7.0; prepare yourselves" warnings in the release notes and
+announcement messages for the past few releases. Let's see how well
+users will fare this time.
+
+ * "git push" into a branch that is currently checked out (i.e. pointed by
+ HEAD in a repository that is not bare) will be refused by default.
+
+ Similarly, "git push $there :$killed" to delete the branch $killed
+ in a remote repository $there, when $killed branch is the current
+ branch pointed at by its HEAD, will be refused by default.
+
+ Setting the configuration variables receive.denyCurrentBranch and
+ receive.denyDeleteCurrent to 'ignore' in the receiving repository
+ can be used to override these safety features. Versions of git
+ since 1.6.2 have issued a loud warning when you tried to do these
+ operations without setting the configuration, so repositories of
+ people who still need to be able to perform such a push should
+ already have been future proofed.
+
+ Please refer to:
+
+ http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq#non-bare
+ http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/107758/focus=108007
+
+ for more details on the reason why this change is needed and the
+ transition process that already took place so far.
+
+ * "git send-email" will not make deep threads by default when sending a
+ patch series with more than two messages. All messages will be sent
+ as a reply to the first message, i.e. cover letter. Git 1.6.6 (this
+ release) will issue a warning about the upcoming default change, when
+ it uses the traditional "deep threading" behaviour as the built-in
+ default. To squelch the warning but still use the "deep threading"
+ behaviour, give --chain-reply-to option or set sendemail.chainreplyto
+ to true.
+
+ It has been possible to configure send-email to send "shallow thread"
+ by setting sendemail.chainreplyto configuration variable to false.
+ The only thing 1.7.0 release will do is to change the default when
+ you haven't configured that variable.
+
+ * "git status" will not be "git commit --dry-run". This change does not
+ affect you if you run the command without pathspec.
+
+ Nobody sane found the current behaviour of "git status Makefile" useful
+ nor meaningful, and it confused users. "git commit --dry-run" has been
+ provided as a way to get the current behaviour of this command since
+ 1.6.5.
+
+ * "git diff" traditionally treated various "ignore whitespace" options
+ only as a way to filter the patch output. "git diff --exit-code -b"
+ exited with non-zero status even if all changes were about changing the
+ ammount of whitespace and nothing else. and "git diff -b" showed the
+ "diff --git" header line for such a change without patch text.
+
+ In 1.7.0, the "ignore whitespaces" will affect the semantics of the
+ diff operation itself. A change that does not affect anything but
+ whitespaces will be reported with zero exit status when run with
+ --exit-code, and there will not be "diff --git" header for such a
+ change.
-In git 1.7.0, which is planned to be the release after 1.6.6, "git
-push" into a branch that is currently checked out will be refused by
-default.
-
-You can choose what should happen upon such a push by setting the
-configuration variable receive.denyCurrentBranch in the receiving
-repository.
-
-Also, "git push $there :$killed" to delete the branch $killed in a remote
-repository $there, when $killed branch is the current branch pointed at by
-its HEAD, will be refused by default.
-
-You can choose what should happen upon such a push by setting the
-configuration variable receive.denyDeleteCurrent in the receiving
-repository.
-
-To ease the transition plan, the receiving repository of such a
-push running this release will issue a big warning when the
-configuration variable is missing. Please refer to:
-
- http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq#non-bare
- http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/107758/focus=108007
-
-for more details on the reason why this change is needed and the
-transition plan.
Updates since v1.6.5
--------------------
(subsystems)
- * various git-gui updates including new translations, wm states, etc.
+ * various gitk updates including use of themed widgets under Tk 8.5,
+ Japanese translation, a fix to a bug when running "gui blame" from
+ a subdirectory, etc.
+
+ * various git-gui updates including new translations, wm states fixes,
+ Tk bug workaround after quitting, improved heuristics to trigger gc,
+ etc.
+
+ * various git-svn updates.
+
+ * "git fetch" over http learned a new mode that is different from the
+ traditional "dumb commit walker".
(portability)
+ * imap-send can be built on mingw port.
+
(performance)
+ * "git diff -B" has smaller memory footprint.
+
(usability, bells and whistles)
* The object replace mechanism can be bypassed with --no-replace-objects
global option given to the "git" program.
+ * In configuration files, a few variables that name paths can begin with ~/
+ and ~username/ and they are expanded as expected.
+
+ * "git subcmd -h" now shows short usage help for many more subcommands.
+
* "git bisect reset" can reset to an arbitrary commit.
* "git checkout frotz" when there is no local branch "frotz" but there
is only one remote tracking branch "frotz" is taken as a request to
start the named branch at the corresponding remote tracking branch.
+ * "git commit -c/-C/--amend" can be told with a new "--reset-author" option
+ to ignore authorship information in the commit it is taking the message
+ from.
+
* "git describe" can be told to add "-dirty" suffix with "--dirty" option.
* "git diff" learned --submodule option to show a list of one-line logs
instead of differences between the commit object names.
+ * "git diff" learned to honor diff.color.func configuration to paint
+ function name hint printed on the hunk header "@@ -j,k +l,m @@" line
+ in the specified color.
+
+ * "git fetch" learned --all and --multiple options, to run fetch from
+ many repositories, and --prune option to remove remote tracking
+ branches that went stale. These make "git remote update" and "git
+ remote prune" less necessary (there is no plan to remove "remote
+ update" nor "remote prune", though).
+
* "git fsck" by default checks the packfiles (i.e. "--full" is the
default); you can turn it off with "git fsck --no-full".
+ * "git grep" can use -F (fixed strings) and -i (ignore case) together.
+
* import-tars contributed fast-import frontend learned more types of
compressed tarballs.
* "git log --decorate" shows the location of HEAD as well.
+ * "git log" and "git rev-list" learned to take revs and pathspecs from
+ the standard input with the new "--stdin" option.
+
* "--pretty=format" option to "log" family of commands learned:
. to wrap text with the "%w()" specifier.
. to show reflog information with "%g[sdD]" specifier.
+ * "git notes" command to annotate existing commits.
+
* "git merge" (and "git pull") learned --ff-only option to make it fail
if the merge does not result in a fast-forward.
the shell, which is done by "edit" to give an opportunity to tweak the
contents.
+ * "git send-email" can be told with "--envelope-sender=auto" to use the
+ same address as "From:" address as the envelope sender address.
+
+ * "git send-email" will issue a warning when it defaults to the
+ --chain-reply-to behaviour without being told by the user and
+ instructs to prepare for the change of the default in 1.7.0 release.
+
+ * In "git submodule add <repository> <path>", <path> is now optional and
+ inferred from <repository> the same way "git clone <repository>" does.
+
* "git svn" learned to read SVN 1.5+ and SVK merge tickets.
- * Author names shown in gitweb output are links to search commits by the
- author.
+ * "git svn" learned to recreate empty directories tracked only by SVN.
+ * "gitweb" can optionally render its "blame" output incrementally (this
+ requires JavaScript on the client side).
-(developers)
+ * Author names shown in gitweb output are links to search commits by the
+ author.
Fixes since v1.6.5
------------------
All of the fixes in v1.6.5.X maintenance series are included in this
release, unless otherwise noted.
-
----
-exec >/var/tmp/1
-echo O=$(git describe master)
-O=v1.6.5.3-152-g122d0f6
-git shortlog --no-merges $O..master --not maint