From d664a7ad20f9cb013f4c53654b76973612a89991 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email>
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:18:23 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] doc: pretty-formats: separate parameters from placeholders

Commit a57523428b4 (pretty: support padding placeholders, %< %> and %><,
2013-04-19) introduced columnated place holders. These placeholders
can be confusing as they contain `<` and `>` characters as part
of their placeholders adjacent to the `<N>` parameters.

Add spaces either side of the `<N>` parameters in the title line.
The code (strtol) will consume any spaces around the number values
(assuming they are passed as a quoted string with spaces).
Note that the spaces are optional.

Subsequent commits will clarify other confusions.

Signed-off-by: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/pretty-formats.txt | 15 +++++++++------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/pretty-formats.txt b/Documentation/pretty-formats.txt
index 0b4c1c8d98..02bec23509 100644
--- a/Documentation/pretty-formats.txt
+++ b/Documentation/pretty-formats.txt
@@ -146,24 +146,27 @@ The placeholders are:
 '%m':: left (`<`), right (`>`) or boundary (`-`) mark
 '%w([<w>[,<i1>[,<i2>]]])':: switch line wrapping, like the -w option of
 			    linkgit:git-shortlog[1].
-'%<(<N>[,trunc|ltrunc|mtrunc])':: make the next placeholder take at
+'%<( <N> [,trunc|ltrunc|mtrunc])':: make the next placeholder take at
 				  least N columns, padding spaces on
 				  the right if necessary.  Optionally
 				  truncate at the beginning (ltrunc),
 				  the middle (mtrunc) or the end
 				  (trunc) if the output is longer than
-				  N columns.  Note that truncating
+				  N columns.
+				  Note 1: that truncating
 				  only works correctly with N >= 2.
-'%<|(<N>)':: make the next placeholder take at least until Nth
+				  Note 2: spaces around the N
+				  values are optional.
+'%<|( <N> )':: make the next placeholder take at least until Nth
 	     columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary
-'%>(<N>)', '%>|(<N>)':: similar to '%<(<N>)', '%<|(<N>)' respectively,
+'%>( <N> )', '%>|( <N> )':: similar to '%<( <N> )', '%<|( <N> )' respectively,
 			but padding spaces on the left
-'%>>(<N>)', '%>>|(<N>)':: similar to '%>(<N>)', '%>|(<N>)'
+'%>>( <N> )', '%>>|( <N> )':: similar to '%>( <N> )', '%>|( <N> )'
 			  respectively, except that if the next
 			  placeholder takes more spaces than given and
 			  there are spaces on its left, use those
 			  spaces
-'%><(<N>)', '%><|(<N>)':: similar to '%<(<N>)', '%<|(<N>)'
+'%><( <N> )', '%><|( <N> )':: similar to '%<( <N> )', '%<|( <N> )'
 			  respectively, but padding both sides
 			  (i.e. the text is centered)