git cherry-pick conflict error message is deceptive when cherry-picking multiple commits

From: Stephen Morton <stephen.c.morton@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 26, 2016, 19:40 UTC
Message-ID: <CAH8BJxGZW8eNQogksZ416sVaBkpQ78uYkV7FtN6wxGafzNwjAg@mail.gmail.com>

When I cherry-pick n commits and one of the first (n-1), fails, what I should do is resolve the conflict, 'git add' it, and then run 'git cherry-pick --continue'. However git advises me to

error: could not apply d0fb756... Commit message for test commit hint: after resolving the conflicts, mark the corrected paths hint: with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>' hint: and commit the result with 'git commit'

I suspect this is not just a little bit deceptive but actually a bit destructive, as doing a 'git commit' removes some of the sequencing information. If I do a 'git commit', while there is .git/sequencer information and 'git cherry-pick --continue' will work, there is no indication in 'git status' that a cherry-pick is in progress.

It would be extremely easy for somebody to follow cherry-pick's hints by running 'git commit' and think that they were done, not realizing that there were m more commits remaining to be cherry-picked.

Would it be possible to expand the hint message to tell users to run 'git cherry-pick --continue'

This patch is *not* meant as a serious patch for submission --I'm sure it's all wrong-- it's just a proof of concept and showing some goodwill on my part that I'm trying to help and I'm willing to put in some work if I can be pointed more in the right direction.

Regards, Stephen

diff --git a/sequencer.c b/sequencer.c
index cdfac82..b8fa534 100644
--- a/sequencer.c
+++ b/sequencer.c
@@ -171,14 +171,21 @@ static void print_advice(int show_hint, struct
replay_opts *opts)

        if (show_hint) {
                if (opts->no_commit)
                        advise(_("after resolving the conflicts, mark
the corrected paths\n"
                                 "with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>'"));
-               else
-                       advise(_("after resolving the conflicts, mark
the corrected paths\n"
-                                "with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>'\n"
-                                "and commit the result with 'git commit'"));
+               else if  (! file_exists(git_path_seq_dir())) {
+                       advise(_("SCM: after resolving the conflicts,
mark the corrected paths\n"
+                     "with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>'\n"
+                     "and commit the result with 'git commit'"));
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            advise(_("SCM: after resolving the conflicts, mark the
corrected paths\n"
+                     "with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>'\n"
+                     "and continue the %s with 'git %s --continue'"),
action_name(opts), action_name(opts));
+        }
        }
 }