Re: [PATCH] hg-to-git: handle an empty dir in hg by combining git commits

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 1, 2007, 20:02 UTC
Message-ID: <7vd4tq41zt.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <4751A0FB.6090705@gmail.com>

Mark Drago <markdrago@gmail.com> writes:

> This patch will detect that there are no changes to commit (using git-status),
> and will not perform the commit, but will instead combine the log messages of
> that (non-)commit with the next commit.

I think a better approach would be to implement --no-tree-change-is-ok option to git-commit, strictly for use by foreign scm interface scripts like yours. It does not usually make sense to record a commit that has the exact same tree as its sole parent commit and that is why git-commit prevents you from making that mistake, but when data from foreign scm is involved, it is a different story. We are equipped to represent such a (perhaps insane, perhaps by mistake, or perhaps done on purpose) change and it is better to represent it bypassing the safety valve for native use.