git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] commit: reword the empty-commit rebase errors

From
Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Date
Aug 28, 2026, 07:38 UTC
Message-ID
<CABPp-BEtoN+zA=vyyEAgruNSy5SKWjTdVW=weDjbM8NcenRbGg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<xmqq1pbjbj4x.fsf@gitster.g>
On Thu, Aug 27, 2026 at 9:52 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 45 quoted lines
>
> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
>
> >> +                    die(_("cannot do a partial commit while resolving a commit that became empty."));
> >
> > That is a mouthful.  It also is awkward to say "while resolving a commit".
>
> This still stands, but I haven't come up with a better alternative yet.
>
> > More importantly, I am not sure if whence == FROM_REBASE_PICK at
> > this point in the code flow is a sufficient sign to tell that we
> > were not just in the middle of a rebase, not just a rebase stopped
> > with _some_ conflict, but the way the rebase stopped was because a
> > step in rebase resulted in a commit that is no-op relative to the
> > previous commit.  What makes us certain that the rebase-pick is
> > empty?
>
> This confusion was because FROM_REBASE_PICK is a misleading name.
>
> sequencer_determine_whence() is the only place that declares the
> whence is FROM_REBASE_PICK, and it specifically checks if the
> rebase-head and cherry-pick-head are identical before yielding that
> value, so by definition we are dealing with an empty-pick situation.
>
> This came from 430b75f720 (commit: give correct advice for empty
> commit during a rebase, 2019-12-06); interestingly, the name of
> FROM_REBASE_PICK and is_from_rebase() seem to have confused even the
> originating commit ;-)  The lines in question
>
> +               else if (is_from_rebase(whence))
> +                       die(_("cannot do a partial commit during a rebase."));
>
> are from that commit, which wanted to "give correct advice for empty
> commit during a rebase".
>
> We may want to
>
>  * change the code that does whence == FROM_REBASE_PICK to use
>    is_from_rebase(whence) everywhere (other than the implementation
>    of is_from_rebase() itself, of course).
>
>  * give FROM_REBASE_PICK and is_from_rebase() better names that
>    contain "empty" somewhere.
>
> to unconfuse me.

That really confused me too. I figured my series was already growing too quickly and decided to leave it out, but since it confused you as well, I agree we should fix this up. I'll add a preparatory patch in v3.

Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
Message 15 of 43 in “commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolution”
  1. commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 26, 2026
  2. Phillip WoodAug 26, 2026
  3. Elijah NewrenAug 27, 2026
  4. Junio C HamanoAug 26, 2026
  5. Elijah NewrenAug 27, 2026
  6. Junio C HamanoAug 26, 2026
  7. Elijah NewrenAug 27, 2026
  8. 0/3 commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 27, 2026
  9. 1/3 commit: reword the empty-commit rebase errorsElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 27, 2026
  10. Phillip WoodAug 27, 2026
  11. Junio C HamanoAug 27, 2026
  12. Elijah NewrenAug 28, 2026
  13. Junio C HamanoAug 27, 2026
  14. Junio C HamanoAug 27, 2026
  15. Elijah NewrenAug 28, 2026
  16. 2/3 commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 27, 2026
  17. Phillip WoodAug 27, 2026
  18. 3/3 commit: refuse partial commits during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 27, 2026
  19. Phillip WoodAug 27, 2026
  20. Phillip WoodAug 27, 2026
  21. Elijah NewrenAug 27, 2026
  22. 0/5 commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 28, 2026
  23. 1/5 commit: clarify FROM_REBASE_PICK and is_from_rebase() namesElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 28, 2026
  24. Junio C HamanoAug 28, 2026
  25. Elijah NewrenAug 28, 2026
  26. 2/5 commit: allow a partial commit when a rebase pick becomes emptyElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 28, 2026
  27. Junio C HamanoAug 28, 2026
  28. 3/5 commit: reword the empty-commit rebase amend errorElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 28, 2026
  29. Junio C HamanoAug 28, 2026
  30. 4/5 commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 28, 2026
  31. 5/5 commit: refuse partial commits during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 28, 2026
  32. Junio C HamanoAug 28, 2026
  33. 0/5 commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Sep 1, 2026
  34. 1/5 commit: clarify FROM_REBASE_PICK and is_from_rebase() namesElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Sep 1, 2026
  35. Phillip WoodSep 2, 2026
  36. 2/5 commit: allow a partial commit when a rebase pick becomes emptyElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Sep 1, 2026
  37. Phillip WoodSep 2, 2026
  38. 3/5 commit: reword the empty-commit rebase amend errorElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Sep 1, 2026
  39. Phillip WoodSep 2, 2026
  40. 4/5 commit: refuse to amend during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Sep 1, 2026
  41. Phillip WoodSep 2, 2026
  42. 5/5 commit: refuse partial commits during conflict resolutionElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Sep 1, 2026
  43. Phillip WoodSep 2, 2026

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.