Re: [PATCH 04/17] revert: Rename no_replay to record_origin

From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 13, 2011, 07:35 UTC
Message-ID: <CALkWK0nm-gX9-3pGxT31VO-06mimd0cg1O8xhk-0QbsbdN7aLg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20110712170256.GC13578@elie>

Hi Jonathan,

Jonathan Nieder writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:
>> Rename the variable corresponding to the "-x" command-line option from
>> "no_replay" to a more apt "record_origin".
>
> Why is it more apt?  What does "-x" do?  Why was it called "no_replay"
> before?  Is there some other motivation to this change (e.g., does this
> pave the way to using the name "replay" for something else)?

Thanks for probing.  Found out the reason after some digging.

revert: Rename no_replay to record_origin

The "-x" command-line option is used to record the name of the original commits being picked in the commit message. The variable corresponding to this option is named "no_replay" for historical reasons. This name was introduced in f810379 (Make builtin-revert.c use parse_options, 2007-10-07) to replace "replay", the opposite of "no_replay". The name "replay" was introduced in 9509af6 (Make git-revert & git-cherry-pick a builtin, 2007-03-01). Back then, "-x" was the only command-line option that modified the commit message of the commit being picked, and was in effect replaying a slightly different commit; hence the names "replay" and "no_replay".

Today, there are many other options like "-s" which append various things to the commit message, and the term "replay" doesn't mean what it used to. So, give the variable corresponding to the "-x" command-line option a better name: "record_origin".

-- Ram