Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] commit: reword the empty-commit rebase errors
- From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
- Date
- Aug 27, 2026, 16:35 UTC
- Message-ID
- <xmqq5x0vbjxd.fsf@gitster.g>
- In-Reply-To
- <65c48ed3cb638cf0be18a3aa6d86d4c4f2cf01a2.1787792534.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
"Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:
Show 31 quoted lines
> From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
>
> When a rebase applies a commit that becomes empty, it stops and asks the
> user to decide whether to keep it or drop it. HEAD still points at the
> previously-applied commit at that point, so either amending or creating
> a partial commit is refused, with one of the following messages:
>
> You are in the middle of a rebase -- cannot amend.
> cannot do a partial commit during a rebase.
>
> Neither message hints that the real problem is a commit that became
> empty, and "during a rebase" is overly broad besides -- amending and
> partial commits are fine at an `edit` or `break` stop. Reword both to
> describe the actual situation.
>
> Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
> ---
> builtin/commit.c | 4 ++--
> t/t3404-rebase-interactive.sh | 4 ++--
> 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/builtin/commit.c b/builtin/commit.c
> index 28f6174503..0d908d72bb 100644
> --- a/builtin/commit.c
> +++ b/builtin/commit.c
> @@ -521,7 +521,7 @@ static const char *prepare_index(const char **argv, const char *prefix,
> else if (is_from_cherry_pick(whence))
> die(_("cannot do a partial commit during a cherry-pick."));
> else if (is_from_rebase(whence))
> - die(_("cannot do a partial commit during a rebase."));
> + die(_("cannot do a partial commit while resolving a commit that became empty."));That is a mouthful. It also is awkward to say "while resolving a commit".
More importantly, I am not sure if whence == FROM_REBASE_PICK at this point in the code flow is a sufficient sign to tell that we were not just in the middle of a rebase, not just a rebase stopped with _some_ conflict, but the way the rebase stopped was because a step in rebase resulted in a commit that is no-op relative to the previous commit. What makes us certain that the rebase-pick is empty?
Show 7 quoted lines
> @@ -1334,7 +1334,7 @@ static int parse_and_validate_options(int argc, const char *argv[],
> else if (is_from_cherry_pick(whence))
> die(_("You are in the middle of a cherry-pick -- cannot amend."));
> else if (whence == FROM_REBASE_PICK)
> - die(_("You are in the middle of a rebase -- cannot amend."));
> + die(_("You are resolving a commit that became empty -- cannot amend."));
> }Again "resolving a commit" sounds a bit awkward. What makes us certain that we aren't seeing an ordinary conflicted "pick" step but the one that has become empty? If "rebase -i" stopped for conflict while applying one step, you edited away conflicts in the working tree files, and instead of saying "rebase --continue" tried to run "commit --amend" by mistake, we do want to stop, but wouldn't it surprise us if the message to stop us said something about "became empty"?