Re: [PATCH 2/2] pull --rebase: reinstate helpful message on abort

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 12, 2015, 20:33 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqeggzltcy.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <d2116a492e14f07c8969798ce21c78a2@dscho.org>

Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> writes:

Show 20 quoted lines

> Hi Junio,
>
> On 2015-10-09 20:36, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>> Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
>> 
>>> When calling `git pull --rebase`, things can go wrong. In such a case,
>>> we want to tell the user about the most common ways out of this fix:
>>> ...
>>>  builtin/am.c | 1 +
>>>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>> 
>> It is strange to see a patch to am that does not talk anything about
>> it, though.  And looking at the codepath, the issue does not have
>> much to do with "pull --rebase".  It doesn't even have much to do
>> with "rebase".  This is purely about "am -3" fallback codepath.
>
> I made it a habit of describing the big picture in commit messages,
> including the original motivation for the patch. Naturally, it is
> purely an implementation detail that the bug displayed by `git pull
> --rebase` is fixed by modifying `am.c`.

Yup, but that is "I happened to notice that bug first in a command that uses another command that happens to use this buggy one". That may be interesting in the "peeing in the snow" sense, but not very interesting in the big picture of ensuring the health of the entire codebase.

The "common ways out of this" helpful message is not even coming from "pull --rebase" or even "rebase" in the first place. What you are reinstating helpful message on abort is "am -3".

"This fixes am -3, hence incidentally fixes rebase and hence fixes pull --rebase, too" would be the most useful way to describe this change. The initial report being about "pull --rebase" is of much lessor importance, I would think.