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Re: Feature request: rebase -i inside of rebase -i

From
Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email>
Date
Mar 30, 2020, 14:01 UTC
Message-ID
<0eef4721-1646-48f2-1102-71159d06b049@iee.email>
In-Reply-To
<nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2003281510260.46@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
Hi all,
On 28/03/2020 14:25, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
Show 42 quoted lines
> Hi George,
>
> On Thu, 26 Mar 2020, George Spelvin wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 08:26:48PM +0100, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>>> On Sat, 21 Mar 2020, George Spelvin wrote:
>>>> My assumption has been that, for simplicity, there would only be one
>>>> commit in progress, and aborting it aborts everything.
>>> But that does not necessarily make sense. Imagine that you rebase the
>>> latest three commits, interactively. Then a merge conflict in the third
>>> makes you realize that the first commit is no longer needed.
>>>
>>> Enter the nested rebase. You manually re-schedule the failed `pick` via
>>> `git rebase --edit-todo` and then run the nested rebase: `git reset --hard
>>> && git rebase -i --nested HEAD~2`.
>>>
>>> Except that you made a typo and said `HEAD~3` instead of `HEAD~2`. You
>>> delete the entire todo list to get a chance to restart the nested rebase.
>>>
>>> But now the entire rebase gets aborted?
>> Um, this example is not persuasive.  If I just leave the excess commit at
>> the front of the to-do list, then it will be recreated without change.
> There are _many_ ways to mess up a nested rebase, including (but not
> limited to) `--onto`, forgetting `-r`, editing the todo list too much in
> an editor without undo.
>
> If you are suggesting that a nested `git rebase -i` would not need a way
> to abort _just_ the nested rebase, then I fear we must stop the
> conversation right here. That's not going to fly.
>
>> (Note that if I choose too *small* a nubmer by accident, I can insert a
>> "break" at the front of the list and then rebase --nested starting from
>> there.)
> There are many ways how a savvy user would be able to work around the
> absence of a proper way to abort a nested rebase. The common theme for all
> of those is:
>
> - they are all quite involved and require knowledge of internals
>
> - they won't change the fact that it would be seriously negligent for us
>   to _not_ offer a way to abort nested rebases.
>
Perhaps we can go the other way on this one.

I'd agree that attempting to nest (misunderstood mistaken) rebases is digging a too deep hole that we'd not get out of. However we do have other rebases available, specifically the "rebasing merges" https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rebase#_rebasing_merges.

I know rebasing merges is way down the man page, but it has all the power and flexibility needed _if_ we can step across from the mistaken rebase step (we are at the command prompt aren't we?) into the rebasing merge mode.

This will require a little bit of expansion of the insn (instruction) sheet so as to _include commented lines of the rebase steps completed_ so far, along with the labels, resets, merges, etc, so that the user can _see_ where they they are within their failed progress (along with a title line telling them their initial command and that they are now on a rebasing merge insn;-).

From there they can update the insn to reset back to the correct point, redo the correct picks, and then get back to their remaining rebase steps.

It's a thought anyway.
HTH
Philip
Previous: George SpelvinNext: George Spelvin
Message 22 of 25 in “Feature request: rebase -i inside of rebase -i”
  1. George SpelvinMar 20, 2020
  2. Junio C HamanoMar 20, 2020
  3. George SpelvinMar 20, 2020
  4. Johannes SchindelinMar 21, 2020
  5. George SpelvinMar 21, 2020
  6. Johannes SchindelinMar 25, 2020
  7. George SpelvinMar 26, 2020
  8. Johannes SchindelinMar 28, 2020
  9. George SpelvinMar 28, 2020
  10. George SpelvinMar 31, 2020
  11. Philip OakleyMar 31, 2020
  12. Phillip WoodMar 31, 2020
  13. Philip OakleyApr 1, 2020
  14. Phillip WoodApr 7, 2020
  15. Johannes SchindelinApr 4, 2020
  16. Johannes SchindelinApr 4, 2020
  17. George SpelvinApr 4, 2020
  18. Sebastien BruckertApr 6, 2020
  19. George SpelvinApr 6, 2020
  20. Sebastien BruckertApr 7, 2020
  21. George SpelvinApr 7, 2020
  22. Philip OakleyMar 30, 2020
  23. George SpelvinMar 30, 2020
  24. Philip OakleyMar 30, 2020
  25. Johannes SixtMar 21, 2020

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