Re: rebase -i: learn to rebase root commit

From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. <bss@iguanasuicide.net>
Date: Dec 29, 2008, 22:21 UTC
Message-ID: <200812291621.35732.bss@iguanasuicide.net>
In-Reply-To: <200812292249.45900.trast@student.ethz.ch>

On Monday 2008 December 29 15:49:42 Thomas Rast wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> Thomas Rast wrote:
> > Teach git-rebase -i a new option --root, which instructs it to rebase
> > the entire history leading up to <branch>.  This is mainly for
> > symmetry with ordinary git-rebase; it cannot be used to edit the root
> > commit in-place (it requires --onto).
>
> Actually, I forgot the "rebase -i -p" code path, which dies if --root
> is used with -p.  Apologies.
>
> So for now, consider this broken and RFC: is there any sensible
> use/interpretation of -p --root that I'm missing?  Or should it just
> disallow this combination?

Here's the interpretation that *I* come up with for -p --root used together: The commit with no parents (OLD_ROOT) is rebased as if -p were not given, call the resulting commit NEW_ROOT. Then, the rebase continues as if "--onto NEW_ROOT OLD_ROOT <branch>" was specified instead of "--onto=NEW_ROOT^ --root <branch>".

Basically, --root only changes how the first commit is handled, which I think is consistent with other uses of --root. It's also similar to cherry-picking the first commit, follwed by a non-root rebase, which I think is also consistent with the intention of --root.

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