Re: [PATCH v5 0/4] history: add squash subcommand to fold a range
- From
- Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>
- Date
- Jun 26, 2026, 08:52 UTC
- Message-ID
- <d37e8f4f-d1f9-45aa-8c95-ebe676d54671@gmail.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <pull.2337.v5.git.git.1782338102.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Hi Harald
On 24/06/2026 22:54, Harald Nordgren via GitGitGadget wrote:
> Adds git history squash <revision-range> to fold a range of commits.
It would be helpful to give a bit more detail here about the command so that the reader has an overview of what is actually being implemented.
- what does it do with fixup!, squash! and amend! commits? Can it use
the message from amend! commits to reword the commit?
- can the user reword the commit message?
- what happens if a merge commit inside the range has a parent outside
the range?
- what happens to branches that point to commits inside the range?I had a quick play and found that it accepts ranges that containing a single commit (e.g. @^!) where there is nothing to squash. It also accepts ranges that are not ancestors of HEAD (e.g. checkout master and run "git history squash --dry-run origin/seen^2^!") without printing an error message. Only accepting a single argument is quite limiting as one cannot say
git history squash ^:/base :/tip
Thanks
Phillip
Show 298 quoted lines
> Changes in v5:
>
> * The range walk now uses --ancestry-path, so only commits descended from
> the base are folded; a single revision such as HEAD or HEAD~1 is now
> rejected as "not a <base>..<tip> range" rather than treated as a squash
> down to the root.
> * This adopts the --ancestry-path suggestion; the multi-base rejection is
> unchanged, so a side branch that forked before the base and merged in is
> still refused.
> * Added tests covering more merge topologies: two interior merges, a nested
> merge, an octopus merge, an octopus arm forked before the base, a merge
> among the descendants replayed above the range, and a ref pointing at an
> interior merge commit.
>
> Changes in v4:
>
> * git history squash now detects when another ref points at a commit inside
> the range being folded and refuses, with an advice.historyUpdateRefs hint
> to use --update-refs=head.
> * A merge inside the range is folded fine as long as the range has a single
> base; a range with merge commit at the tip or base also folds correctly.
> Only a range with more than one base is rejected.
>
> Changes in v3:
>
> * Moved the feature out of git rebase and into a new git history squash
> <revision-range> subcommand, per the list discussion. git rebase --squash
> is dropped.
> * Takes an arbitrary range (git history squash @~3.., git history squash
> @~5..@~2), folding it into the oldest commit and replaying any
> descendants on top.
> * Implemented as a single tree operation rather than picking each commit,
> so there are no repeated conflict stops (addresses Phillip's efficiency
> point).
> * A merge inside the range is folded fine, only a range with more than one
> base is rejected.
> * --reedit-message seeds the editor with every folded-in message, not just
> the oldest.
>
> Harald Nordgren (4):
> history: extract helper for a commit's parent tree
> history: give commit_tree_ext a message template
> history: add squash subcommand to fold a range
> history: re-edit a squash with every message
>
> Documentation/config/advice.adoc | 4 +
> Documentation/git-history.adoc | 26 ++
> advice.c | 1 +
> advice.h | 1 +
> builtin/history.c | 341 ++++++++++++++++++---
> t/meson.build | 1 +
> t/t3455-history-squash.sh | 497 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 7 files changed, 833 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-)
> create mode 100755 t/t3455-history-squash.sh
>
>
> base-commit: 26d8d94e94df5535eecd036f16627493506a0614
> Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2337%2FHaraldNordgren%2Frebase-fixup-fold-v5
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2337/HaraldNordgren/rebase-fixup-fold-v5
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2337
>
> Range-diff vs v4:
>
> 1: fc2801c0b1 = 1: 0f1ae9b05a history: extract helper for a commit's parent tree
> 2: ee591e83b4 = 2: a97ffab1e6 history: give commit_tree_ext a message template
> 3: 80bfea642e ! 3: 04e18ef979 history: add squash subcommand to fold a range
> @@ builtin/history.c: out:
> + struct rev_info revs;
> + struct commit *commit, *base = NULL, *oldest = NULL, *tip = NULL;
> + struct strvec args = STRVEC_INIT;
> ++ size_t i;
> + int ret;
> +
> + repo_init_revisions(repo, &revs, NULL);
> @@ builtin/history.c: out:
> + strvec_push(&args, "--reverse");
> + strvec_push(&args, "--topo-order");
> + strvec_push(&args, "--boundary");
> ++ strvec_push(&args, "--ancestry-path");
> + strvec_push(&args, range);
> + setup_revisions_from_strvec(&args, &revs, NULL);
> + if (args.nr != 1) {
> @@ builtin/history.c: out:
> + goto out;
> + }
> +
> ++ /*
> ++ * A squash needs a base to reparent onto, so the argument has to
> ++ * exclude something, as in "<base>..<tip>". A single revision has no
> ++ * such bottom commit and cannot be squashed.
> ++ */
> ++ for (i = 0; i < revs.cmdline.nr; i++)
> ++ if (revs.cmdline.rev[i].flags & UNINTERESTING)
> ++ break;
> ++ if (i == revs.cmdline.nr) {
> ++ ret = error(_("'%s' is not a '<base>..<tip>' range"), range);
> ++ goto out;
> ++ }
> ++
> + if (prepare_revision_walk(&revs) < 0) {
> + ret = error(_("error preparing revisions"));
> + goto out;
> @@ builtin/history.c: out:
> + goto out;
> + }
> +
> -+ if (!base) {
> -+ ret = error(_("cannot squash the root commit"));
> -+ goto out;
> -+ }
> ++ if (!base)
> ++ BUG("a non-empty range must have a boundary commit");
> +
> + *base_out = base;
> + *oldest_out = oldest;
> @@ t/t3455-history-squash.sh (new)
> + test_grep "the range .* is empty" err
> +'
> +
> -+test_expect_success 'errors when the range includes the root commit' '
> ++test_expect_success 'errors on a single revision that is not a range' '
> + test_must_fail git history squash HEAD 2>err &&
> -+ test_grep "cannot squash the root commit" err
> ++ test_grep "is not a .*range" err &&
> ++ test_must_fail git history squash HEAD~1 2>err &&
> ++ test_grep "is not a .*range" err
> +'
> +
> +test_expect_success 'squashes a range into a single commit without changing the tree' '
> @@ t/t3455-history-squash.sh (new)
> + test_path_is_file inner
> +'
> +
> ++test_expect_success 'folds a merge of a branch that forked at the base' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ git checkout -b base-fork-side &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag base-fork-side side x &&
> ++ git checkout - &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag base-fork-main file b &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "merge base-fork-side" base-fork-side &&
> ++ git branch -D base-fork-side &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag base-fork-tail file c &&
> ++ tip_tree=$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree}) &&
> ++
> ++ git history squash start.. &&
> ++
> ++ git rev-list --count start..HEAD >count &&
> ++ echo 1 >expect &&
> ++ test_cmp expect count &&
> ++ test_cmp_rev start HEAD^ &&
> ++ test "$tip_tree" = "$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree})" &&
> ++ test_path_is_file side
> ++'
> ++
> +test_expect_success 'folds a range whose tip is a merge commit' '
> + git reset --hard start &&
> + test_commit --no-tag tipmerge-base file b &&
> @@ t/t3455-history-squash.sh (new)
> + test_cmp_rev "$merged" HEAD
> +'
> +
> ++test_expect_success 'folds a range with two interior merges' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag two-merge-a file a1 &&
> ++ git checkout -b two-merge-s1 &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag two-merge-s1 s1 x &&
> ++ git checkout - &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "merge s1" two-merge-s1 &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag two-merge-b file b1 &&
> ++ git checkout -b two-merge-s2 &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag two-merge-s2 s2 y &&
> ++ git checkout - &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "merge s2" two-merge-s2 &&
> ++ git branch -D two-merge-s1 two-merge-s2 &&
> ++ tip_tree=$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree}) &&
> ++
> ++ git history squash start.. &&
> ++
> ++ git rev-list --count start..HEAD >count &&
> ++ echo 1 >expect &&
> ++ test_cmp expect count &&
> ++ test "$tip_tree" = "$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree})" &&
> ++ test_path_is_file s1 &&
> ++ test_path_is_file s2
> ++'
> ++
> ++test_expect_success 'folds a range with a nested merge' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ main=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD) &&
> ++ git checkout -b nested-outer &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag nested-outer outer x &&
> ++ git checkout -b nested-inner &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag nested-inner inner y &&
> ++ git checkout nested-outer &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "merge inner" nested-inner &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag nested-main file b1 &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "merge outer" nested-outer &&
> ++ git branch -D nested-outer nested-inner &&
> ++ tip_tree=$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree}) &&
> ++
> ++ git history squash start.. &&
> ++
> ++ git rev-list --count start..HEAD >count &&
> ++ echo 1 >expect &&
> ++ test_cmp expect count &&
> ++ test "$tip_tree" = "$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree})" &&
> ++ test_path_is_file outer &&
> ++ test_path_is_file inner
> ++'
> ++
> ++test_expect_success 'folds a range with an octopus merge' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ main=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD) &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag octo-base file a1 &&
> ++ git checkout -b octo-1 &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag octo-1 o1 x &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ git checkout -b octo-2 &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag octo-2 o2 y &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m octopus octo-1 octo-2 &&
> ++ git branch -D octo-1 octo-2 &&
> ++ tip_tree=$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree}) &&
> ++
> ++ git history squash start.. &&
> ++
> ++ git rev-list --count start..HEAD >count &&
> ++ echo 1 >expect &&
> ++ test_cmp expect count &&
> ++ test "$tip_tree" = "$(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree})" &&
> ++ test_path_is_file o1 &&
> ++ test_path_is_file o2
> ++'
> ++
> ++test_expect_success 'refuses an octopus merge with an arm forked before the base' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ main=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD) &&
> ++ git checkout -b octo-pre &&
> ++ test_commit octo-pre-side pside x &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ test_commit octo-pre-main file b1 &&
> ++ octo_base=$(git rev-parse HEAD) &&
> ++ git checkout -b octo-within &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag octo-within wside y &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m octopus octo-pre octo-within &&
> ++ merged=$(git rev-parse HEAD) &&
> ++ git branch -D octo-pre octo-within &&
> ++
> ++ test_must_fail git history squash "$octo_base.." 2>err &&
> ++ test_grep "more than one base" err &&
> ++ test_cmp_rev "$merged" HEAD
> ++'
> ++
> ++test_expect_success 'refuses when a descendant above the range is a merge' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ main=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD) &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag desc-base file b &&
> ++ git tag desc-tip &&
> ++ git checkout -b desc-above &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag desc-above above x &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag desc-main file c &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "merge desc-above" desc-above &&
> ++ git branch -D desc-above &&
> ++ head_before=$(git rev-parse HEAD) &&
> ++
> ++ test_must_fail git history squash start..desc-tip 2>err &&
> ++ test_grep "merge commits is not supported" err &&
> ++ test_cmp_rev "$head_before" HEAD
> ++'
> ++
> ++test_expect_success 'refuses to fold a range a ref points into at a merge' '
> ++ git reset --hard start &&
> ++ main=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD) &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag refmerge-base file b &&
> ++ git checkout -b refmerge-side &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag refmerge-side side x &&
> ++ git checkout "$main" &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag refmerge-main file c &&
> ++ git merge --no-ff -m "interior merge" refmerge-side &&
> ++ git branch -D refmerge-side &&
> ++ git branch at-merge HEAD &&
> ++ test_commit --no-tag refmerge-tail file d &&
> ++ head_before=$(git rev-parse HEAD) &&
> ++
> ++ test_must_fail git history squash start.. 2>err &&
> ++ test_grep "at-merge" err &&
> ++ test_grep "points into the squashed range" err &&
> ++ test_cmp_rev "$head_before" HEAD &&
> ++
> ++ git branch -D at-merge
> ++'
> ++
> +test_done
> 4: 85c7817d7e = 4: a758e1f084 history: re-edit a squash with every message
>