Wrong count git commits [duplicate]

Question

I have a small bash script:

echo "Total commits: "
git log --all --pretty=format:"%h %ad | %s%d [%an]" --date=short | wc -l
echo "Total no-merge commits: "
git log --all --pretty=format:"%h %ad | %s%d [%an]" --date=short --no-merges | wc -l
echo "Total merge commits: "
git log --all --pretty=format:"%h %ad | %s%d [%an]" --date=short --merges | wc -l

I know that the code is not optimal. The Result of my script:

Total commits:  
1000
Total no-merge commits:  
817
Total merge commits: 
182

Question: why is the sum of no-merge and merge commits (182+817 = 999) lower than the total commits (1000)?

Answer 1

The output from those log commands uses \n as a separator, not a terminator, so your wc -l counts are all one short. You really have:

1001 = 818 + 183

commits, which adds up.

From git help log:

The tformat: format works exactly like format:, except that it provides "terminator" semantics instead of "separator" semantics. In other words, each commit has the message terminator character (usually a newline) appended, rather than a separator placed between entries. This means that the final entry of a single-line format will be properly terminated with a new line, just as the "oneline" format does.