From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:46:59 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/2] Reinstate the helpful message when `git pull --rebase` fails
Message-ID: <793ef29a6d9c77b4f4be478239b74089@dscho.org>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqzizroorx.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>

Hi Junio,

On 2015-10-09 20:55, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
> 
> I would prefer the endgame to be an efficient implementation of
> merge_recursive_generic(), a function that you can call without you
> having to worry about it dying.
> 
> But the patch in this thread is not that, if I am reading Johannes's
> description correctly.  

As pointed out by Paul, the recursive merge should only die() in case of a non-recoverable error so serious that not even rerere can do anything (such as a read error).

The bug is that a code path for a non-recoverable error is taken.

Spawning the recursive merge would be a work-around making the need to fix that bug less urgent, nothing more. (So would introducing the 'gentle' flag, of course, albeit without the performance regression of spawning a new process.)

Ciao,
Dscho