From a8e89346a7731cb3104010f322c65e2a0c922618 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mirko Faina <mroik@delayed.space>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:25:18 +0100
Subject: format-patch: fix From header in cover letter

"git format-patch" takes "--from=<user ident>" command line option
and uses the given ident for patch e-mails, but this is not applied
to the cover letter, the option is ignored and the committer ident
of the current user is used. This has been the case ever since
"--from" was introduced in a9080475 (teach format-patch to place
other authors into in-body "From", 2013-07-03).

Teach the make_cover_letter() function to honor the option, instead of
always using the current committer identity. Change variable name from
"committer" to "from" to better reflect the purpose of the variable.

Signed-off-by: Mirko Faina <mroik@delayed.space>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc | 11 ++++++-----
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

(limited to 'Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc')

diff --git a/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc b/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc
index 9a7807ca71..6ac453958c 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-format-patch.adoc
@@ -282,11 +282,12 @@ e.g., `--rfc='-(WIP)'` results in "PATCH (WIP)".
 
 --from::
 --from=<ident>::
-	Use `ident` in the `From:` header of each commit email. If the
-	author ident of the commit is not textually identical to the
-	provided `ident`, place a `From:` header in the body of the
-	message with the original author. If no `ident` is given, use
-	the committer ident.
+	Use `ident` in the `From:` header of each email. In case of a
+	commit email, if the author ident of the commit is not textually
+	identical to the provided `ident`, place a `From:` header in the
+	body of the message with the original author. If no `ident` is
+	given, or if the option is not passed at all, use the ident of
+	the current committer.
 +
 Note that this option is only useful if you are actually sending the
 emails and want to identify yourself as the sender, but retain the
-- 
cgit v1.3

