Re: [RFC] git-brebase

From: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>
Date: Oct 3, 2026, 21:29 UTC
Message-ID: <asFy2kOZe7WDy38I@debian>
In-Reply-To: <asFw4gsn253MQtxp@ubby>

Hi Nico,

Show 28 quoted lines

> Date: 2026-10-03 16:17:22-0500
> From: Nico Williams <nico@cryptonector.com>
>
> On Sat, Oct 03, 2026 at 11:07:04PM +0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > Since --abort doesn't go all the way back, I think --continue shouldn't
> > continue all the way forward, for consistency.
> 
> Fair.
> 
> > If that's desired behavior, it should go in this tool, and not as part
> > of git-rebase(1).  git-rebase(1) is a much simpler and much more
> > fundamental tool, which is used to build this more complex tool.
> > That's one reason I'm rather opposed to having this as part of
> > git-rebase(1); it would confuse about the responsibility of
> > git-rebase(1).  IMO, git-rebase(1) is a plumbing command, and
> > git-brebase would be a porcelain thingy.
> > 
> > > If we take this approach then we'd need an option not to enable this
> > > behavior but to disable it, something like `--direct`.
> > 
> > That hints it might be just be a different command.
> 
> If this was 2007, and you were writing the first version of `rebase`,
> and you had already worked out that you wanted this feature, what would
> you do then?  Would you make it the default?  I _think_ I would.
> 
> Basically, this makes rebasing much nicer, so why not make it the
> default?

I'm currently defaulting to brebase for every rebase I want to do.

However, I still use the regular git-rebase(1) for more precise operations. To be specific, I use it for changing history (without moving the base), and I also use it for resolving conflicts as part of a git-brebase operation. They seem to me to be different tools, even though they're clearly related.

I think we use git-rebase(1) for what we should be using git-brebase only because we didn't have the latter. That might be the reason we confuse them and think they're the same tool. They're used for very different operations.

Cheers, Alex

> 
> Nico
> --

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>