Re: [PATCH] rebase -i: fixup fixup! fixup!

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 17, 2013, 02:38 UTC
Message-ID: <7v7ghtjwbb.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <87ip1e2tzx.fsf@hexa.v.cablecom.net>

Thomas Rast <trast@inf.ethz.ch> writes:

Show 9 quoted lines

> Isn't it a bit of an academic question?
> ...
> And once you have that, it seems a nicer and cleaner idea to generate
> 'fixup! A' each time, instead of a successive sequence of
>
>   fixup! A
>   fixup! fixup! A
>   fixup! fixup! fixup! A
>   ...

As to reordering, you are absolutely correct.

If you are going to apply all three anyway, then the end result either does not change at all (when none of them overlap textually), or you will end up with unnecessary conflicts (when they do).

But if you were to pick (and drop some), all three labeled with "fixup A" vs later ones having more "fixup" in front will make a difference in identification and usability. When you want to drop the second fixup, "fixup fixup A" can be chosen unambiguously in your editor among "fixup A", "fixup fixup A" and "fixup fixup fixup A".

It also somewhat feels wrong when the user sees this:

    $ git log --oneline -2
    xxxx A
    yyyy fixup! A

and asks to do this:

    $ git commit --fixup yyyy

and if you end up with "fixup! A", not "fixup! fixup! A". The user is asking to follow-up on the "fixup! A", not on the original "A".

Does dropping these leading "fixup!" (or "squash!") at commit time make the application in "rebase -i --autosquash" significantly easier to do?