Hi Greg,
On 2026-02-25T13:23:24-0800, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > Commit date also doesn't matter. If I commit a fix to one of my
> > > branches today, but Linus pulls it in in 2 years from now, what would
> > > that date really show to anyone?
> >
> > I think this is a bit confused.
> >
> > If you commit a fix for a commit that is in Linus's tree, your Fixes tag
> > will refer to the mainline commit, and the Fixes tag will remain valid
> > if the fix is pulled by Linus in the future, because it will continue to
> > refer to the same commit with the same hash and date.
>
> But we do not need the date! It provides no additional information that
> we can't just look up if we really need it.
>
> The HASH ("text") format does 2 things, it provides an id we can use to
> look up more, and the text is there to give humans a hint if they don't
> want or need to look it up.The date gives more information to humans to decide if the commit is important to look up. Sometimes, a subject can be ambiguous to the human, even if it's not ambiguous to a machine. The date can help give some context to a human. For example, one could relate a commit to a series that was merged around that date. The date uses few characters, so it's not too expensive in terms of space. You may even take some space back by dropping a few characters from the hash. Also, by having a fixed-width, it doesn't distract much, as all subjects will still be aligned, so the eyes can jump it easily if not interesting (just like the hash). I appreciate seeing the date in my Fixes tags elsewhere, as it avoids looking up some commits, which I would look up if I hadn't seen the date. Secondarily, it helps with the ID, in case it becomes ambiguous. But I started using it for the human part of it. > There is no need to include anything else, > let's keep it simple please. Okay; I won't insist. Have a lovely night! Alex > > thanks, > > greg k-h -- <https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>
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