git-rebase--interactive needs a better message

I have tried to use git-rebase --interactive today, and run into a strange error message saying:

/usr/bin/git-rebase--interactive: line 333: $GIT_DIR/.dotest-merge/author-script: No such file or directory

I had to scratch my head for a while before I realized that I forgot to say git-commit. So, it was mine mistake, but I think that it should be possible to have a better error message suggesting the user what to do. I have looked at the git-rebase--interactive script, but I am not sure that I understand it good enough to propose a patch.

To reproduce the problem, run the following script in an empty directory: === #!/bin/sh set -e

git-init echo 'version 1' > foo git-add foo git-commit -m 'commit 1' foo echo 'versionn 2' >> foo git-commit -m 'commit 2' foo echo 'version 3' >> foo git-commit -m 'commit 3' foo

GIT_EDITOR='sed -i -e "/commit 2/{s/^pick/edit/}"' git-rebase -i HEAD~2 sed -i -e "s/versionn/version/" foo git-update-index foo # Missing git-commit --amend git-rebase --continue ===

Error message: == /usr/bin/git-rebase--interactive: line 333: /tmp/zzz/.git/.dotest-merge/author-script: No such file or directory ===

I use git version 1.5.3.1

Dmitry Potapov