Documentation/RelNotes-1.6.6.txt - jrn/git - Git at Google

 Git v1.6.6 Release Notes
 ========================

 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, 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 use 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 tried very hard to
 avoid repeating that unpleasantness.

 For changes decided to be in 1.7.0, we have been much louder to strongly
 discourage such procrastination.  If you have been using recent versions
 of git, you would have already seen warnings issued when you exercised
 features whose behaviour will change, with the instruction on how to
 keep the existing behaviour if you want to.  You hopefully should be
 well prepared already.

 Of course, we have also given "this and that will change in 1.7.0;
 prepare yourselves" warnings in the release notes and announcement
 messages.  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 them
    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.


 Updates since v1.6.5
 --------------------

 (subsystems)

  * various git-gui updates including new translations, wm states, etc.

  * 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 instaweb" knows how to talk with mod_cgid to apache2.

  * "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 ancient "git merge <message> HEAD <branch>..." syntax will be
    removed in later versions of git.  A warning is given and tells
    users to use the "git merge -m <message> <branch>..." instead.

  * "git mergetool" learned to use p4merge.

  * "git rebase -i" learned "reword" that acts like "edit" but immediately
    starts an editor to tweak the log message without returning control to
    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.

  * "gitweb" can optionally render its "blame" output incrementally (this
    requires JavaScript on the client side).

  * Author names shown in gitweb output are links to search commits by the
    author.


 (developers)

 Fixes since v1.6.5
 ------------------

 All of the fixes in v1.6.5.X maintenance series are included in this
 release, unless otherwise noted.

  * Enumeration of available merge strategies iterated over the list of
    commands in a wrong way, sometimes producing an incorrect result.
    Will backport by merging ed87465 (builtin-merge.c: call
    exclude_cmds() correctly., 2009-11-25).

  * "git format-patch revisions... -- path" issued an incorrect error
    message that suggested to use "--" on the command line when path
    does not exist in the current work tree (it is a separate matter if
    it makes sense to limit format-patch with pathspecs like that
    without using the --full-diff option).  Will backport by merging
    7e93d3b (format-patch: add test for parsing of "--", 2009-11-26).

  * "git shortlog" did not honor the "encoding" header embedded in the
    commit object like "git log" did.  Will backport by merging 79f7ca0
    (shortlog: respect commit encoding, 2009-11-25).

 ---
 exec >/var/tmp/1
 echo O=$(git describe master)
 O=v1.6.6-rc0-119-gc0ecb07
 git shortlog --no-merges $O..master --not maint
	Git v1.6.6 Release Notes
	========================

	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, 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 use 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 tried very hard to
	avoid repeating that unpleasantness.

	For changes decided to be in 1.7.0, we have been much louder to strongly
	discourage such procrastination. If you have been using recent versions
	of git, you would have already seen warnings issued when you exercised
	features whose behaviour will change, with the instruction on how to
	keep the existing behaviour if you want to. You hopefully should be
	well prepared already.

	Of course, we have also given "this and that will change in 1.7.0;
	prepare yourselves" warnings in the release notes and announcement
	messages. 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 them
	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.


	Updates since v1.6.5
	--------------------

	(subsystems)

	* various git-gui updates including new translations, wm states, etc.

	* 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 instaweb" knows how to talk with mod_cgid to apache2.

	* "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 ancient "git merge <message> HEAD <branch>..." syntax will be
	removed in later versions of git. A warning is given and tells
	users to use the "git merge -m <message> <branch>..." instead.

	* "git mergetool" learned to use p4merge.

	* "git rebase -i" learned "reword" that acts like "edit" but immediately
	starts an editor to tweak the log message without returning control to
	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.

	* "gitweb" can optionally render its "blame" output incrementally (this
	requires JavaScript on the client side).

	* Author names shown in gitweb output are links to search commits by the
	author.


	(developers)

	Fixes since v1.6.5
	------------------

	All of the fixes in v1.6.5.X maintenance series are included in this
	release, unless otherwise noted.

	* Enumeration of available merge strategies iterated over the list of
	commands in a wrong way, sometimes producing an incorrect result.
	Will backport by merging ed87465 (builtin-merge.c: call
	exclude_cmds() correctly., 2009-11-25).

	* "git format-patch revisions... -- path" issued an incorrect error
	message that suggested to use "--" on the command line when path
	does not exist in the current work tree (it is a separate matter if
	it makes sense to limit format-patch with pathspecs like that
	without using the --full-diff option). Will backport by merging
	7e93d3b (format-patch: add test for parsing of "--", 2009-11-26).

	* "git shortlog" did not honor the "encoding" header embedded in the
	commit object like "git log" did. Will backport by merging 79f7ca0
	(shortlog: respect commit encoding, 2009-11-25).

	---
	exec >/var/tmp/1
	echo O=$(git describe master)
	O=v1.6.6-rc0-119-gc0ecb07
	git shortlog --no-merges $O..master --not maint