Re: [PATCH 4/5] builtin/repo: find commit with most parents

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Date: Feb 3, 2026, 23:14 UTC
Message-ID: <e48578d5-ec48-4369-901a-597de3be9455@app.fastmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqpl6lqw86.fsf@gitster.g>

On Tue, Feb 3, 2026, at 23:48, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> Justin Tobler <jltobler@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Complex merge events may produce an octopus merge where the resulting
>> merge commit has more than two parents. While iterating through objects
>> in the repository for git-repo-structure, identify the commit with the
>> most parents and display it in the output.
>
> Does the size of octopus have anything more than a curiosity value?

I’m guessing this stat is inspired by git-sizer.[1][2] This is all that the project says about “octopus”:

    * Are there other bizarre and questionable things in your repository?

        * Annotated tags pointing at one another in long chains?
        * Octopus merges with dozens of parents?
        * Commits with gigantic log messages?

It marks the max of 10 in this repo as a “one star” (*) concern (lowest). The 66 parent commit in the Linux Kernel gets six stars.

By the way: why did this project stop doing 3+ parent merges?

🔗 1: https://lore.kernel.org/git/20251021182601.2687284-5-jltobler@gmail.com/ 🔗 2: https://github.com/github/git-sizer

>
> The opposite, the commit with most direct children, might be even
> more interesting, but that may be just me.