Re: [PATCH v2] sequencer: fix edit handling for cherry-pick and revert messages

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 31, 2021, 18:01 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqmtuj8ank.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CABPp-BErXWkEOCyZtYP9AHd9eP2osL4s1xjMZ_BRkGSktdFnKg@mail.gmail.com>

Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> writes:

> ... would you two prefer
> that I add a new affirm() function that is ALSO compiled out in
> production?

The reason I do not think affirm would fly is because it shares the most problematic trait with assert(): it can be comipled out.

There was at least one bug we found and fixed in a piece of code that came later in a codepath that had an assert() in it. The buggy code (IIRC, it was added way after the assert() was written in an unrelated patch) was unknowingly depending on a side-effect of an innocuous function call (i.e. assert(func_tion(args) == expected)) made in the assert condition, and the bug did not reproduce in the developer's environment.