backfill: document acceptance of revision-range in more standard manner
302aff09223f (backfill: accept revision arguments, 2026-03-26) added
support for passing revision arguments to 'git backfill' but documented
them only with a prose sentence:
You may also specify the commit limiting options from
git-rev-list(1).
No other command that accepts revision arguments documents them this
way. Commands like log, shortlog, and replay define a formal
<revision-range> entry and include rev-list-options.adoc. Commands like
bundle, fast-export, and filter-branch, which pass arguments through to
the revision machinery without including the full options file, still
define a formal <git-rev-list-args> entry explaining what is accepted.
Add a formal <revision-range> entry in the synopsis and OPTIONS section,
following the convention used by other commands, and mention that
commit-limiting options from git-rev-list(1) are also accepted.
Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
diff --git a/Documentation/git-backfill.adoc b/Documentation/git-backfill.adoc
index 246ab41..bf26d76 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-backfill.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-backfill.adoc
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
SYNOPSIS
--------
[synopsis]
-git backfill [--min-batch-size=<n>] [--[no-]sparse]
+git backfill [--min-batch-size=<n>] [--[no-]sparse] [<revision-range>]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
time.
By default, `git backfill` downloads all blobs reachable from the `HEAD`
-commit. This set can be restricted or expanded using various options.
+commit. This set can be restricted or expanded using various options below.
THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. ITS BEHAVIOR MAY CHANGE IN THE FUTURE.
@@ -63,7 +63,16 @@
current sparse-checkout. If the sparse-checkout feature is enabled,
then `--sparse` is assumed and can be disabled with `--no-sparse`.
-You may also specify the commit limiting options from linkgit:git-rev-list[1].
+`<revision-range>`::
+ Backfill only blobs reachable from commits in the specified
+ revision range. When no _<revision-range>_ is specified, it
+ defaults to `HEAD` (i.e. the whole history leading to the
+ current commit). For a complete list of ways to spell
+ _<revision-range>_, see the "Specifying Ranges" section of
+ linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
++
+You may also use commit-limiting options understood by
+linkgit:git-rev-list[1] such as `--first-parent`, `--since`, or pathspecs.
SEE ALSO
--------
diff --git a/builtin/backfill.c b/builtin/backfill.c
index a9edddc..e934d36 100644
--- a/builtin/backfill.c
+++ b/builtin/backfill.c
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
#include "path-walk.h"
static const char * const builtin_backfill_usage[] = {
- N_("git backfill [--min-batch-size=<n>] [--[no-]sparse]"),
+ N_("git backfill [--min-batch-size=<n>] [--[no-]sparse] [<revision-range>]"),
NULL
};