Re: Graphical tool to merge and reorder commits

From: Konstantin Khomoutov <kostix@bswap.ru>
Date: Aug 18, 2025, 18:04 UTC
Message-ID: <ph6tcb3xncqhunxoh5mr3rrjxi3vbo6tekcjx3dv5lfks5giw3@nya6ss4tpmoe>
In-Reply-To: <4398af77-3183-4ac5-9a25-aca6289d8c8f@rd10.de>

(Sorry, I have nothing to say regarding the very question you have asked - as I personally do not need a tool you describe, but I have decided to chime in anyway in an attemt to correct what I perceive as a misunderstanding.)

On Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 11:02:53PM +0200, R. Diez wrote:

[...]

Show 9 quoted lines

> Here are more details about what I mean. Say I have this commit history:
> 
>  A - B - C [master]
> 
> I want to visually create a test branch first, by dragging commits B and C
> together (merging them), and then appending commit A afterwards:
> 
>  A - B - C [master]
>  BC - A [test]

This is not merging, but rather is "squashing". Merging in Git (and in any other VCS I'm familiar with) is combining together one or more separate lines of history. In other words, something like

  A - B - C (master) - - M (new state of master)
                       /
  X - Y - Z (feature) -

would be a merge of the branch "feature" into the branch "master", with the commit M having two parent commits: C and Z.

Squasing, in turn, is combining textual changes introduced by multiple commits into a single textual change represented by a single commit.

[...]

> I have tried or investigated numerous Git tools

[...]

> They are all fine for normal commits and the like. However, most fall short
> fairly quickly. For example, the ability to highlight character or
> word-based changes inside a text line is rare. And none of them really
> appealed to me when merging, let alone rearrange commits visually.

Just a guess, but visual tools naturally tend to be tailored to the needs of inexperienced users - to lower the entry barrier, and what you're after, to me, appears to be a task not casually undertaken by the members of this group.

Creating such a tool properly - with some intuitive support for resolving cases when, - continuing your example - rearranging "BC" and "A" would make "A" fail to apply, and with unlimited undo expected from a GUI tool, wold not be an easy task.