Re: rebase -i and --whitespace, was Re: [PATCH] git-rebase.sh: Update USAGE string (No. 1)

> Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > So it means that synopsis should, instead of current (pre-patch)
> >
> > 'git-rebase' [-i | --interactive] [-v | --verbose] [-m | --merge]
> >         [-C<n>] [ --whitespace=<option>] [-p | --preserve-merges]
> >         [--onto <newbase>] <upstream> [<branch>]
> >
> > should read
> >
> > 'git-rebase' [-v | --verbose]  [-p | --preserve-merges]
> >         [{-i | --interactive} | [-C<n>] [ --whitespace=<option>] [-m | --merge]]
> >         [--onto <newbase>] <upstream> [<branch>]
> >
> > or perhaps even separated into interactive / non-interactive merge?
> 
> I think the reality is:
> 
>  * -i ignores the lack of -m (i.e. do not use the slow "merge");
> 
>  * Rebase with -m cannot use -C<n> and --whitespace (hence -i
>    because it forces -m);
> 
>  * -p is only meaningful when using -m;

> Three possible courses of actions are:
> 
>  (1) fix merge codepath (this is involved --- we would need to
>      teach xdl_merge() to honor --whitespace={warn|error|fix}
>      and -C<n>); or
> 
>  (2) fix -i so that it does not force -m; or
> 
>  (3) adjust the description to reality.
> 
> Obviously the easiest would be to document the behaviour as-is,
> but I suspect (2) would be the best practical solution if we
> wanted to have any improvement compared to the current
> situation.