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Re: Fwd: [Survey] Signed push

From
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date
Sep 14, 2011, 15:25 UTC
Message-ID
<CA+55aFw08zEeWovDPRGCM2f-xCuamJogFzigka4=mfcpJbZpsA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<4E7085E6.3060509@alum.mit.edu>
On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 3:45 AM, Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>
> Instead of "like a branch description", why not implement branch
> descriptions directly?
Mostly because of just human interface issues.

We already have a "repository description", and it's quite commonly never even filled in. For branches, that would be doubly true, because a lot of branches are throw-away.

So I think it would work if we made it part of of something like "git push -s" - because that's when it starts mattering to others.

Show 6 quoted lines
> I wish that one could annotate a branch (e.g., at creation) and have the
> annotation follow the branch around.  This would be a useful place to
> record *why* you created the branch, your plans for it, etc.  The
> annotation should be modifiable, because often a branch evolves in
> unforeseen ways during its lifetime.  Anybody could read the annotation
> to get a quick idea of what kind of work is in progress.

I wouldn't be against that as a concept, I just think you'd be a small small minority, and most branches would never get annotated.

But I don't really care deeply how it actually works - my main issue is that git makes it way too easy to have bad merge messages. I think part of that is an even simpler idiocy: we never even fire up the editor by default for a "git merge", but we do for a "git commit". That was a design mistake, and it means that if you want to actually add a note to a merge, you have to do extra work. So people don't.

Now people do "git merge" in scripts etc, so we can't fix it ;-(
                    Linus
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 30 of 62 in “[Survey] Signed push”
  1. Junio C HamanoSep 13, 2011
  2. 0/2 State commit name explicitly in request-pull messagesJunio C Hamano, Sep 13, 2011
  3. 1/2 fetch: allow asking for an explicit commit object by nameJunio C Hamano, Sep 13, 2011
  4. 2/2 request-pull: state exact commit object nameJunio C Hamano, Sep 13, 2011
  5. Guenter RoeckSep 13, 2011
  6. Junio C HamanoSep 13, 2011
  7. Junio C HamanoSep 14, 2011
  8. Sam VilainSep 14, 2011
  9. Shawn PearceSep 14, 2011
  10. Sam VilainSep 14, 2011
  11. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuySep 14, 2011
  12. Jonathan NiederSep 14, 2011
  13. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuySep 14, 2011
  14. Jeff KingSep 15, 2011
  15. Andy LutomirskiSep 14, 2011
  16. Junio C HamanoSep 14, 2011
  17. Andrew LutomirskiSep 14, 2011
  18. Fwd: [Survey] Signed pushLinus Torvalds, Sep 14, 2011
  19. Michael HaggertySep 14, 2011
  20. Matthieu MoySep 14, 2011
  21. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuySep 14, 2011
  22. Johan HerlandSep 14, 2011
  23. Ted Ts'oSep 14, 2011
  24. Linus TorvaldsSep 14, 2011
  25. Matthieu MoySep 14, 2011
  26. Johan HerlandSep 14, 2011
  27. Philip OakleySep 14, 2011
  28. Linus TorvaldsSep 14, 2011
  29. Junio C HamanoSep 14, 2011
  30. Linus TorvaldsSep 14, 2011
  31. Junio C HamanoSep 14, 2011
  32. Linus TorvaldsSep 14, 2011
  33. Junio C HamanoSep 14, 2011
  34. Sam VilainSep 14, 2011
  35. request-pull: state what commit to expectJunio C Hamano, Sep 16, 2011
  36. Junio C HamanoSep 20, 2011
  37. 2/3 branch: teach --edit-description optionJunio C Hamano, Sep 20, 2011
  38. Andrew ArdillSep 21, 2011
  39. Junio C HamanoSep 21, 2011
  40. request-pull: use the branch descriptionJunio C Hamano, Sep 20, 2011
  41. 0/6 A handful of "branch description" patchesJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  42. 1/6 branch: add read_branch_desc() helper functionJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  43. 2/6 format-patch: use branch description in cover letterJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  44. 3/6 branch: teach --edit-description optionJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  45. Michael J GruberSep 23, 2011
  46. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuySep 23, 2011
  47. Junio C HamanoSep 23, 2011
  48. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuySep 25, 2011
  49. 4/6 request-pull: modernize styleJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  50. 5/6 request-pull: state what commit to expectJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  51. 6/6 request-pull: use the branch descriptionJunio C Hamano, Sep 22, 2011
  52. Michael J GruberSep 23, 2011
  53. Jeff KingSep 23, 2011
  54. Junio C HamanoSep 23, 2011
  55. Jeff KingSep 23, 2011
  56. Michael J GruberSep 24, 2011
  57. Jeff KingSep 27, 2011
  58. Annotated branch ≈ annotated tag?Michael Haggerty, Sep 28, 2011
  59. Andrew ArdillSep 28, 2011
  60. Michael HaggertySep 28, 2011
  61. Branch annotations [Re: Annotated branch ≈ annotated tag?]Michael J Gruber, Sep 28, 2011
  62. Jeff KingSep 29, 2011

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