Because ':/substring' extended SHA1 expression cannot take

postfix modifiers such as ^{tree} and ^{commit}, we would need

to do it in multiple steps.  With the patch, you can start a new

branch from a randomly-picked commit whose message has the named

string in it.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

---
 * As we advertize that ":/string" syntax is usable for any

   command that wnats to take a commit object name in the

   Release Notes, we might want to put this in 1.5.4 final.  It

   looks simple and safe enough.
diff --git a/git-checkout.sh b/git-checkout.sh

index 5621c69..bd74d70 100755

--- a/git-checkout.sh

+++ b/git-checkout.sh

@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ while test $# != 0; do

 done
 arg="$1"

-if rev=$(git rev-parse --verify "$arg^0" 2>/dev/null)

+rev=$(git rev-parse --verify "$arg" 2>/dev/null)

+if rev=$(git rev-parse --verify "$rev^0" 2>/dev/null)

 then

 	[ -z "$rev" ] && die "unknown flag $arg"

 	new_name="$arg"

@@ -82,11 +83,11 @@ then

 	fi

 	new="$rev"

 	shift

-elif rev=$(git rev-parse --verify "$arg^{tree}" 2>/dev/null)

+elif rev=$(git rev-parse --verify "$rev^{tree}" 2>/dev/null)

 then

 	# checking out selected paths from a tree-ish.

 	new="$rev"

-	new_name="$arg^{tree}"

+	new_name="$rev^{tree}"

 	shift

 fi

 [ "$1" = "--" ] && shift

-

Could we have a test for this? I'm not exactly sure how to use it, and I

want to make sure my C version works.
	-Daniel

*This .sig left intentionally blank*

-

$ git checkout -b newone ':/Initial revision of "git"'

$ git log

commit e83c5163316f89bfbde7d9ab23ca2e25604af290

Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>

Date:   Thu Apr 7 15:13:13 2005 -0700
    Initial revision of "git", the information manager from hell
;-)
-