Re: git merge --date --author

From: Yann Droneaud <ydroneaud@opteya.com>
Date: Mar 10, 2014, 12:52 UTC
Message-ID: <1394455972.3257.51.camel@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqvbvpu757.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

Hi,

Le vendredi 07 mars 2014 à 11:43 -0800, Junio C Hamano a écrit :

Show 14 quoted lines

> Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org> writes:
> 
> > Yann Droneaud <ydroneaud@opteya.com> writes:
> >
> >> But I'd like to know if there's a specific reason for git merge to not
> >> support --date and --author ?
> >
> > It's rather unusual that a merge is performed on behalf of a different
> > author.
> 
> Yes.  Michael's "Nobody bothered to implement it" is also correct
> but the reason why nobody bothered to most likely is due to "why
> would you want to lie?".
>

When was Git changed in some kind of TSA agent one has to bribe to get allowed to cross^Wcommit ? Why git lawyer is not implemented ? I want a fair trial !

And before adding to Git a perfect lie detector (how will it able to make the difference between truth and lie ? then, will it be able to make the difference between good and bad ?, oh god, no !), I would prefer to have it detect bugs before one could commit instead.

You seems to think I'm lying, but I'm not a liar: I just need to make some arrangements with the history under another identity, as I could be legally bound to. So it may sound like a lie for you, but ultimately, it's the plain truth.

So as the tool is not in position to distinguish lie from truth, I'd prefer to not see this concept brought here.

Show 12 quoted lines

> If the use case is to rebuild history, you would need to be able to
> also lie about the committer, so
> 
> >> git merge \
> >>     --date "2013-12-31 23:59:59 +0000" \
> >>     --author "Happy New Year <happy.new-year@gregorian.calendar>" \
> >>     current-year
> 
> in such a history-rebuild script would not be sufficient.  The
> script can set necessary environment variables to lie about both
> author and commiter, though, of course.
>

Thanks for reminding this: I have to use GIT_COMMITER_DATE, GIT_COMMITER_NAME and GIT_COMMITER_EMAIL.

As I'm not calling for adding --date and --author, I will continue to use the environment variables: they're good enough for the job.

Regards.

-- 
Yann Droneaud
OPTEYA