Re: Git Feature Request (Commit Message editing directly from interactive rebase control file)

From: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date: Dec 24, 2020, 00:06 UTC
Message-ID: <X+PbbVNIspvJx/yE@camp.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAM0jFOfvNFva98PNjO33HW3Y4+L1SufvEHQYzwGLHgOkfhmUDQ@mail.gmail.com>

On 2020-12-23 at 23:07:43, Mike McLean wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

> Indicator that the commit-rename should use the text in the control
> file (rather than the later editor prompt) could either be A) a new
> command (rename-inline, or similar) or B) existing rename command +
> "the text on this line is different from the text on the original
> commit".
> 
> Obviously this wouldn't support multiline commit messages - those
> would still use the existing workflow, but adding this new feature
> wouldn't impinge upon them, so they've not lost anything.

I know people tend to do this quite frequently, but it's extremely uncommon for me to write such a message. I normally write a reasonably verbose commit message, and in the vast majority of the cases where the change is so trivial that I write a single-line commit message, I'm on a project with sign-offs, so this wouldn't work there.

That doesn't mean that this couldn't be useful in some cases, but I think we're likely to encourage single-line commit messages, which I don't think we want to do in the general case, or cause user confusion when their commit message inline is either (a) truncated unexpectedly or (b) not honored because the message is already multiline. So I feel like such a feature is a foot-gun waiting to happen.

-- 
brian m. carlson (he/him or they/them)
Houston, Texas, US