Re: [PATCH v2] cherry-pick: use trailer instead of free-text for `-x`

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 4, 2023, 04:32 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqfs776e62.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1519.v2.git.git.1685816463240.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"Sean Allred via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

> From: Sean Allred <allred.sean@gmail.com>
>
> When recording the origin commit during a cherry-pick, the current label
> used is not understood by git-interpret-trailers. Standardize onto the
> 'normal' trailer format that can be reasonably/reliably parsed and used
> by external tooling leveraging git-interpret-trailers.

I am somewhat negative on going in this direction, as we originally added these "cherry-picked-from" by default, but stopped doing so for a reason [*1*]. I'd be hesitant to see us spend any engineering resources on a feature we discourage (not even to deprecate and to remove). It is a different story if we change the previous stance on the "cherry-picked-from" information, though.

I admit I've suggested "Cherry-picked-from:" long time ago [*2*], as an aside in a discussion, but the discussion was more about treating the line as a very distinct thing that is different from any other "trailer" lines. The last time this was brought up, I thought that it was deemed unnecessary because interpret-trailer code already understood by the trailer code [*3*], and we _could_ teach the interpret-trailer code to rewrite it to "Cherry-picked-from:". Any renewed efforts should build on the discussion there, addressing points raised during the discussion, I think.

Thanks.

[Footnotes and references]

*1* Unlike "revert", "cherry-pick" is done from an unrelated and
    often not even published history, and referring to such a commit
    that the end-user cannot do "git show" does not add much value
    to the history.

*2* https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqtwcycqul.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com/ *3* https://lore.kernel.org/git/20181106221118.GA9975@sigill.intra.peff.net/