Message-Id: <pull.2035.v2.git.1786673186855.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <pull.2035.git.1786516958048.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
References: <pull.2035.git.1786516958048.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
From: "Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2026 02:06:26 +0000
Subject: [PATCH v2] diff: avoid misleading statement about -l option
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To: git@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>,
    Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

In commit 6623a528e00b (doc: clarify documentation for rename/copy
limits, 2021-07-15), the wording around rename limit options and config
variables were updated to point out that only the quadratic portion of
rename detection (or "exhaustive portion of rename/copy detection" as
used in that commit) was limited by these options, because exact rename
detection and basename-guided rename detection (which both run in time
linear in the number of files) still run before this limit is checked.

However, the short help message wasn't updated at the time; update it
too.

Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
---
    diff: avoid misleading statement about -l option
    
    Changes since v1:
    
     * Fixed author to match signoff
     * Simplified the wording a bit, along the lines of Junio's suggestion

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2035%2Fnewren%2Fdiff-l-option-doc-v2
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2035/newren/diff-l-option-doc-v2
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2035

Range-diff vs v1:

 1:  6253e1dc96 ! 1:  58729a71ce diff: avoid misleading statement about -l option
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Elijah Newren <newren@github.com>
     +Author: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          diff: avoid misleading statement about -l option
     @@ diff.c: struct option *add_diff_options(const struct option *opts,
       			       PARSE_OPT_NOARG, diff_opt_follow),
       		OPT_INTEGER('l', NULL, &options->rename_limit,
      -			    N_("prevent rename/copy detection if the number of rename/copy targets exceeds given limit")),
     -+			    N_("prevent exhaustive portion of rename/copy detection if the number of rename/copy targets exceeds given limit")),
     ++			    N_("limit to cheap rename/copy detection if the number of rename/copy targets exceeds this value")),
       
       		OPT_GROUP(N_("Diff algorithm options")),
       		OPT_CALLBACK_F(0, "minimal", options, NULL,


 diff.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/diff.c b/diff.c
index 589c1969e4..c593066592 100644
--- a/diff.c
+++ b/diff.c
@@ -6186,7 +6186,7 @@ struct option *add_diff_options(const struct option *opts,
 			       N_("continue listing the history of a file beyond renames"),
 			       PARSE_OPT_NOARG, diff_opt_follow),
 		OPT_INTEGER('l', NULL, &options->rename_limit,
-			    N_("prevent rename/copy detection if the number of rename/copy targets exceeds given limit")),
+			    N_("limit to cheap rename/copy detection if the number of rename/copy targets exceeds this value")),
 
 		OPT_GROUP(N_("Diff algorithm options")),
 		OPT_CALLBACK_F(0, "minimal", options, NULL,

base-commit: 2c78326f810173a4f3aefd8021f1e07575412481
-- 
gitgitgadget