From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:55:20 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] merge-ort: fix slightly overzealous assertion for rename-to-self
Message-ID: <xmqqbju4q39j.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CABPp-BF7iTvqKFvuOZ5wZ3vZADjCvB63iKR-4D5+WeTxnZGThg@mail.gmail.com>

Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> writes:

> On Wed, Mar 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>> Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > But it might be worth mentioning that having side-effects in
>> > assertions is a huge no-no, and I understand that when folks have to
>> > debug one of those (I had to in a separate project years ago which was
>> > kind of nasty), that they sometimes jump to the conclusion that
>> > assertions are bad.
>>
>> Yes, assert() invites such mistakes.  Why not avoid them when there
>> are better alternatives like "if (condition) BUG()"?
>
> I mean, I just gave my reasons above which you snipped out.  But if
> you feel it is important for folks to move away from assert(), would
> you like to see someone create a better alternative to assert, such as
> BUG_ON(condition), so that they have reason to want to switch?

You said "BUG_ON()" is better than "if (condition) BUG()", but I do
not see a reason why.  It also shares the same problem with assert()
if we make it honor NDEBUG.

Thanks.