git log pretty format

Question

I have an alias for git log twoline.

[alias]
    l       = "log --graph --date=relative --decorate --abbrev-commit --pretty=format:'%h - %aD (%ar)%d%n  %s - %an'"

It works nicely.

output#1:

$ git l -2
* 714a14e - Fri, 18 Nov 2016 00:04:19 -0800 (3 months ago) (HEAD -> dev, github/dev)
|   Adding BitSet implementation. - hippy
* 87dce5f - Sat, 10 Dec 2016 12:50:40 -0800 (9 weeks ago)
|   Turning on recommended code analysis rules. - hippy

However, with --name-status , I can see a pipe after the author name.

output#2:

$ git l -2 --name-status
* 714a14e - Fri, 18 Nov 2016 00:04:19 -0800 (3 months ago) (HEAD -> dev, github/dev)
|   Adding BitSet implementation. - hippy|
| M README.md
| A rm.Extensions/BitSet.cs
| M rm.Extensions/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs
| M rm.Extensions/rm.Extensions.csproj
| A rm.ExtensionsTest/BitSetTest.cs
| M rm.ExtensionsTest/rm.ExtensionsTest.csproj

* 87dce5f - Sat, 10 Dec 2016 12:50:40 -0800 (9 weeks ago)
|   Turning on recommended code analysis rules. - hippy|
| M rm.Extensions/GraphExtension.cs
| M rm.Extensions/Wrapped.cs
| M rm.Extensions/WrappedExtension.cs
| M rm.Extensions/rm.Extensions.csproj

If I were to add a %n at the very end (so ...%an%n ), output#1 becomes 3 lines instead of 2.

I want --name-status to look like this preferably but an extra newline before list of files is ok:

$ git l -2 --name-status
* 714a14e - Fri, 18 Nov 2016 00:04:19 -0800 (3 months ago) (HEAD -> dev, github/dev)
|   Adding BitSet implementation. - hippy
| M README.md
| A rm.Extensions/BitSet.cs
| M rm.Extensions/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs
| M rm.Extensions/rm.Extensions.csproj
| A rm.ExtensionsTest/BitSetTest.cs
| M rm.ExtensionsTest/rm.ExtensionsTest.csproj
|
* 87dce5f - Sat, 10 Dec 2016 12:50:40 -0800 (9 weeks ago)
|   Turning on recommended code analysis rules. - hippy
| M rm.Extensions/GraphExtension.cs
| M rm.Extensions/Wrapped.cs
| M rm.Extensions/WrappedExtension.cs
| M rm.Extensions/rm.Extensions.csproj

This just seems like a bug to me as I cannot find anything in the pretty formats man page .

$ git version
git version 2.11.0.windows.1

How do I fix this the pretty format ?

Note: I have filed a bug here ( bug link ) and will update the ticket accordingly.

Answer 1

It is clearly a bug (the vertical bar is in the wrong place ; note the gap below the --name-status items). Fortunately, there is a trivial workaround: use tformat instead of plain format . The difference is that tformat adds a newline if needed, and not if not needed.

Note that --format (available since Git version 1.6.3) is essentially a synonym for --pretty=tformat: , since most user-facing code should usually be using tformat .