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Re: [PATCH v4 10/45] sequencer: trivial fix

From
Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date
Jun 9, 2013, 19:11 UTC
Message-ID
<CAMP44s15nxOmZb4L5qGJ1+6dy0DkUTnCq6u=SRJgqO18tK-H4Q@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20130609190103.GG22905@serenity.lan>
On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 2:01 PM, John Keeping <john@keeping.me.uk> wrote:
Show 28 quoted lines
> On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 12:53:38PM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>> On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 12:37 PM, John Keeping <john@keeping.me.uk> wrote:
>> > On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 07:33:42PM +0200, SZEDER Gábor wrote:
>> >> On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 12:23:01PM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>> >> > On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 12:18 PM, SZEDER Gábor <szeder@ira.uka.de> wrote:
>> >> > > On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 11:40:22AM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>> >> > >> We should free objects before leaving.
>> >> > >>
>> >> > >> Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
>> >> > >
>> >> > > A shortlog-friendlier subject could be: "sequencer: free objects
>> >> > > before leaving".
>> >> >
>> >> > I already defended my rationale for this succinct commit message:
>> >> >
>> >> > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/225609/focus=225610
>> >>
>> >> Your arguments were unconvincing.  The mere fact that I raised this
>> >> issue unbeknownst to the earlier posting clearly shows that there's
>> >> demand for descriptive subjects.
>> >
>> > Not to mention that with your subject no body is needed, making the
>> > overall message more succinct.
>>
>> It's not succinct at all, because there's no short and quick
>> description of what the patch actually is; a trivial fix.
>
> Is it not equally succinct to say "fix memory leak"?

Almost. "fix memory leak" doesn't say anything about the scope; it can be a huge change, or a trivial one.

Perhaps "trivial memory leak fix" would be better.
Show 19 quoted lines
>> > When reading a log, as soon as I see "trivial" I become suspicious that
>> > someone is trying to cover something up, much like "left as an exercise
>> > for the reader".  If the subject says "fix memory leak" then it's
>> > obvious what the patch is meant to do, and when there is no subtlety to
>> > be explained (as there isn't in this patch) there is no need for a body.
>>
>> You are not a rational person then. The commit message has absolutely
>> no bearing on the quality of the code. If you are less suspicious of a
>> commit message that says "fix memory leak", you are being completely
>> biased.
>>
>> Whether the commit message says "fix memory leak", or "trivial fix",
>> or "foobar", the code might still be doing something wrong, and you
>> can't decide that until you look at the code.
>
> I have a certain level of trust that commit summaries in git.git will be
> accurate.  If I want to know what has changed, then "fix memory leak"
> implies "no functional change"; if I see "trivial fix" then how do I
> know what that is?

It is a trivial fix, that's what it is. You don't need to bother yourself with it. Unless you plan to see the code.

> It could be a whitespace change,
That's not a fix, that's a cleanup.
> a fix to a memory leak, a typo correction, a change to a separator in a message shown to
> the user,

You might be right, but I don't think you _need_ to know which one of them it is; they are all trivial. In 90% of the cases you want to skip them and keep reading. In the 10% where you do need more, well, you probably need to look at the code either way.

> or even a small change to corner case behaviour.
That's not trivial.
Show 6 quoted lines
>> If you don't care about the code, but still want to know what the
>> patch is doing, then you can look at the whole commit message, and "We
>> should free objects before leaving." explains that perfectly.
>
> The short message is what appears in "What's Cooking", why should I need
> to break out of my mail client to find out what it means?

You don't, it's a trivial fix, and you said you have a certain level of trust on commit summaries ;)

-- 
Felipe Contreras
Previous: John KeepingNext: SZEDER Gábor
Message 28 of 86 in “Massive improvents to rebase and cherry-pick”
  1. 00/45 Massive improvents to rebase and cherry-pickFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  2. 01/45 build: generate and clean test scriptsFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  3. 02/45 build: do not install git-remote-testgitFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  4. 03/45 build: trivial cleanupFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  5. SZEDER GáborJun 9, 2013
  6. 04/45 build: add builtin libFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  7. 05/45 log-tree: remove dependency from sequencerFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  8. 06/45 Move sequencer to builtinFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  9. Antoine PelisseJun 9, 2013
  10. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  11. Ramkumar RamachandraJun 9, 2013
  12. Antoine PelisseJun 9, 2013
  13. 07/45 unpack-trees: plug a memory leakFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  14. 08/45 read-cache: plug a few leaksFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  15. 09/45 sequencer: remove useless indentationFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  16. Fredrik GustafssonJun 9, 2013
  17. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  18. Fredrik GustafssonJun 9, 2013
  19. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  20. Fredrik GustafssonJun 9, 2013
  21. 10/45 sequencer: trivial fixFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  22. SZEDER GáborJun 9, 2013
  23. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  24. SZEDER GáborJun 9, 2013
  25. John KeepingJun 9, 2013
  26. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  27. John KeepingJun 9, 2013
  28. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  29. SZEDER GáborJun 9, 2013
  30. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  31. SZEDER GáborJun 9, 2013
  32. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  33. Philip OakleyJun 9, 2013
  34. 11/45 cherry-pick: don't barf when there's nothing to doFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  35. Fredrik GustafssonJun 9, 2013
  36. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  37. 12/45 cherry-pick: add --skip-empty optionFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  38. 13/45 revert/cherry-pick: add --quiet optionFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  39. 14/45 revert/cherry-pick: add --skip optionFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  40. 15/45 builtin: add rewrite helperFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  41. 16/45 cherry-pick: store rewritten commitsFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  42. 17/45 cherry-pick: don't store skipped commitFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  43. 18/45 builtin: move run_rewrite_hook() to rewrite.cFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  44. 19/45 builtin: add copy_rewrite_notes()Felipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  45. 20/45 cherry-pick: copy notes and run hooksFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  46. Thomas RastJun 9, 2013
  47. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  48. 21/45 cherry-pick: add --action-name optionFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  49. 22/45 cherry-pick: remember rerere-autoupdateFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  50. 23/45 rebase: split the cherry-pick stuffFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  51. 24/45 rebase: cherry-pick: fix mode storageFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  52. 25/45 rebase: cherry-pick: fix sequence continuationFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  53. 26/45 rebase: cherry-pick: fix abort of cherry modeFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  54. 27/45 rebase: cherry-pick: fix command invocationsFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  55. 28/45 rebase: cherry-pick: fix status messagesFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  56. 29/45 rebase: cherry-pick: automatically commit stageFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  57. 30/45 rebase: cherry-pick: set correct action-nameFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  58. 31/45 rebase: trivial cleanupFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  59. Fredrik GustafssonJun 9, 2013
  60. Junio C HamanoJun 11, 2013
  61. Fredrik GustafssonJun 11, 2013
  62. Felipe ContrerasJun 11, 2013
  63. Fredrik GustafssonJun 11, 2013
  64. Felipe ContrerasJun 11, 2013
  65. Fredrik GustafssonJun 11, 2013
  66. Felipe ContrerasJun 11, 2013
  67. 32/45 rebase: use 'cherrypick' mode instead of 'am'Felipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  68. 33/45 rebase: cherry-pick: fix for shell promptFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  69. 34/45 rebase: cherry-pick: add merge optionsFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  70. 35/45 rebase: remove merge modeFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  71. 36/45 rebase: cherry-pick: add copyrightFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  72. 37/45 tests: fix autostashFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  73. 38/45 add simple tests of consistency across rebase typesFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  74. 39/45 add tests for rebasing with patch-equivalence presentFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  75. 40/45 add tests for rebasing of empty commitsFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  76. 41/45 add tests for rebasing rootFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  77. 42/45 add tests for rebasing merged historyFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  78. Thomas RastJun 9, 2013
  79. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  80. Thomas RastJun 9, 2013
  81. Felipe ContrerasJun 9, 2013
  82. 43/45 t3406: modernize styleFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  83. 44/45 tests: move test for rebase messages from t3400 to t3406Felipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  84. 45/45 tests: update topology testsFelipe Contreras, Jun 9, 2013
  85. Martin von ZweigbergkJun 11, 2013
  86. Felipe ContrerasJun 11, 2013

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