Re: [PATCH 7/7] rebase: implement --[no-]autostash and rebase.autostash

From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 24, 2013, 08:27 UTC
Message-ID: <CALkWK0=JsR9txrrnWZKyrTpv-s+ZgVz-cL6ZsMn2R+wz6rE4FA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CABURp0onypkDFiovYP4s0UuBV+oFp3rPv1Jq8dGbxZhKU_sgsQ@mail.gmail.com>

Phil Hord wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> Because I am in a git-rebase which has apparently failed, I would
> expect 'git rebase --abort' would save me here.  But it does not and
> you have given me some unique instructions to try to recover.  I
> suppose rebase--abort cannot be made to recover in this case because
> this is a rebase-wrapper and all of my rebase-state is already
> discarded.  But I would much prefer to have the normal "undo"-ability
> of git-rebase here, once I realize I have made a mistake or
> encountered conflicts I am not prepared to handle right now.

You're asking for a hammer solution, when I'm advocating a solution that offers more flexibility and control. Commits and worktree changes are fundamentally two different things, and I treat them differently.

rebase.autostash is simply a shortcut for:

    $ git stash && git rebase ... && git stash pop

Except that your stash is not blocked during the rebase process: we use a special stash. If the last 'git stash pop' fails, do you do this?

    $ git reset --hard HEAD@{1}
    $ git stash pop
    # snip, snip ...
    # redo the entire rebase

I _never_ find myself doing this; in your hammer solution, you're advocating that we always do this.

The stash is a powerful tool when used properly: a stash isn't attached to any branch, and therefore perfectly designed to keep small temporary worktree changes for a short period of time. rebase.autostash is _not_ a way to take away power from the user, or save the user from learning how to use stash.

That said, the current implementation is very rough and I will improve it in the next iterations. If the apply fails, I will push the changes onto stash@{0}, and let the user do a 'git stash pop' instead of having to remember (or copy out) a SHA-1 displayed in the terminal output. Essentially, this leaves the user in the exact same state as if she had done a 'git stash && git rebase ... && git stash pop'.