Re: [PATCH] docs: Clarify what git-rebase's "--preserve-merges" does

From: Sebastian Schuberth <sschuberth@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 30, 2015, 19:42 UTC
Message-ID: <CAHGBnuP0mRYWyJiLvWHuqsVxMRPPtvu-QuWmcD8xXeVOXhwSDA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqfv8mxuuv.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 7:23 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 18 quoted lines

>> Ignoring a merge sounds like ignoring the changes a merge commit
>> introduces altogether, as if the merge commit was skipped or dropped from
>> history. But that is not what happens if "-p" is not specified.
>
> Every time I read the above (which is essentially the same from your
> first edition I think) I find the "ignoring the changes a merge
> commit introduces altogether" and "as if the merge commit was
> skipped" somehow contradicting with each other.  If the latter were
> "as if the side branch that was merged was skipped or dropped", I do
> not see the room for such a misinterpretation.
>
> That is, at least to me,
>
>          D---E---F
>         /         \
>     ---A---B---C---G---H
>
> the former, i.e. "the changes the merge G introdues", is "diff C G",

To me, too. In other words, this is the combined diff of all commits reachable from all parents of the merge (other than the first parent). In your example, that would be the combined diff of D, E and F, which equals "git diff C G".

However, I'm used to thinking that a non-conflicting merge itself has no diff, but introduces commits that have diffs. This way of seeing it probably comes from my intensive use of gitk which does not display a diff when selecting a merge commit unless it has conflicts resolved.

> while "merge commit was skipped" would mean a history like this:
>
>     ---A---B---C---D'--E'--F'--H'
>

This is where your interpretation differs. If a merge commit was skipped, it is non-existent. If it is non-existent, it also has no parents. If it has no parents, there are no commits that D, E, F could be replayed on to of C. Thus for me, skipping merge commit G in your example would result in:

    ---A---B---C---H'

Show 5 quoted lines

> And I think with "as if the side branch that was merged was
> dropped", this misinterpretation will become impossible.  It can
> only mean this history:
>
>     ---A---B---C---.---H'

I think we need to generalize the wording a bit for merges with more than two parents. How about making the the first paragraph of the commit message simply read:

Ignoring a merge sounds like dropping the merge commit and all side branches it merges from history. But that is not what happens if "-p" is not specified.

-- 
Sebastian Schuberth