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-rw-r--r--Documentation/git-format-patch.txt26
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt b/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
index 3e49bf2210..911da181a1 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
@@ -36,11 +36,28 @@ SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Prepare each commit with its patch in
-one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format.
+Prepare each commit with its "patch" in
+one "message" per commit, formatted to resemble a UNIX mailbox.
The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or
for use with 'git am'.
+A "message" generated by the command consists of three parts:
+
+* A brief metadata header that begins with `From <commit>`
+ with a fixed `Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001` datestamp to help programs
+ like "file(1)" to recognize that the file is an output from this
+ command, fields that record the author identity, the author date,
+ and the title of the change (taken from the first paragraph of the
+ commit log message).
+
+* The second and subsequent paragraphs of the commit log message.
+
+* The "patch", which is the "diff -p --stat" output (see
+ linkgit:git-diff[1]) between the commit and its parent.
+
+The log message and the patch is separated by a line with a
+three-dash line.
+
There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on.
1. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading
@@ -221,6 +238,11 @@ populated with placeholder text.
`--subject-prefix` option) has ` v<n>` appended to it. E.g.
`--reroll-count=4` may produce `v4-0001-add-makefile.patch`
file that has "Subject: [PATCH v4 1/20] Add makefile" in it.
+ `<n>` does not have to be an integer (e.g. "--reroll-count=4.4",
+ or "--reroll-count=4rev2" are allowed), but the downside of
+ using such a reroll-count is that the range-diff/interdiff
+ with the previous version does not state exactly which
+ version the new interation is compared against.
--to=<email>::
Add a `To:` header to the email headers. This is in addition