# git merge ignoring whitespace 4 messages from 2009-02-05 to 2009-02-13. Participants: layer, Junio C Hamano, Johannes Schindelin. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/17598 ## layer, 2009-02-05 23:24 Subject: git merge ignoring whitespace Message-ID: <2754.1233876289@relay.known.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/2754.1233876289%40relay.known.net ``` Junio, on 3/25/07 you said: I know Linus does not like applying patches with whitespace fuzziness, but I personally think a merge that ignores whitespace changes would be a useful thing to have, without having to call an external specialized merge backend. In other words, I do not think it is so special a thing to want to, but it is rather an unfortunate norm. I am not opposed to give git-merge-recursive a command line option to tell it to merge ignoring the whitespace-only changes, when it does the 3-way file-level merge internally. Whatever came of this? I tried giving git merge a --ignore-whitespace argument and the error message that followed show no equivalent argument. It would sure come in handy right now. Is there some other way to do it that I didn't find searching the mailing list? Thanks. Kevin ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2009-02-05 23:44 Subject: Re: git merge ignoring whitespace Message-ID: <7vtz78a1pn.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vtz78a1pn.fsf%40gitster.siamese.dyndns.org In-Reply-To: <2754.1233876289@relay.known.net> ``` layer writes: > Junio, on 3/25/07 you said: > > I know Linus does not like applying patches with whitespace > fuzziness, but I personally think a merge that ignores > whitespace changes would be a useful thing to have, without > having to call an external specialized merge backend. In other > words, I do not think it is so special a thing to want to, but > it is rather an unfortunate norm. I am not opposed to give > git-merge-recursive a command line option to tell it to merge > ignoring the whitespace-only changes, when it does the 3-way > file-level merge internally. > > Whatever came of this? I do not know. When I say "I am not opposed to", I mean just that. I may consider it a bad mode of operation, and I may hesitate to encourage people to use it as their default. But I do not feel strongly enough to veto it---as long as it is a rope you need to explicitly ask for to hang yourself with, I think it is Ok if we allowed such an option. It is not my itch to scratch, and I do not keep track. Did you submit a patch that implements the new feature cleanly? ``` ## layer, 2009-02-05 23:48 Subject: Re: git merge ignoring whitespace Message-ID: <3047.1233877716@relay.known.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/3047.1233877716%40relay.known.net In-Reply-To: <7vtz78a1pn.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> ``` Junio C Hamano wrote: >> layer writes: >> >> > Junio, on 3/25/07 you said: >> > >> > I know Linus does not like applying patches with whitespace >> > fuzziness, but I personally think a merge that ignores >> > whitespace changes would be a useful thing to have, without >> > having to call an external specialized merge backend. In other >> > words, I do not think it is so special a thing to want to, but >> > it is rather an unfortunate norm. I am not opposed to give >> > git-merge-recursive a command line option to tell it to merge >> > ignoring the whitespace-only changes, when it does the 3-way >> > file-level merge internally. >> > >> > Whatever came of this? >> >> I do not know. When I say "I am not opposed to", I mean just that. >> >> I may consider it a bad mode of operation, and I may hesitate to encourage >> people to use it as their default. But I do not feel strongly enough to >> veto it---as long as it is a rope you need to explicitly ask for to hang >> yourself with, I think it is Ok if we allowed such an option. >> >> It is not my itch to scratch, and I do not keep track. Thanks for the summary. >> Did you submit a patch that implements the new feature cleanly? Nope. I'm just barely emerging from newbie status, so I'm probably a ways away from implementing it. Kevin ``` ## Johannes Schindelin, 2009-02-13 01:38 Subject: Re: git merge ignoring whitespace Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/alpine.DEB.1.00.0902130231300.26370%40racer In-Reply-To: <2754.1233876289@relay.known.net> ``` Hi, On Thu, 5 Feb 2009, layer wrote: > Junio, on 3/25/07 you said: > > I know Linus does not like applying patches with whitespace > fuzziness, but I personally think a merge that ignores > whitespace changes would be a useful thing to have, without > having to call an external specialized merge backend. In other > words, I do not think it is so special a thing to want to, but > it is rather an unfortunate norm. I am not opposed to give > git-merge-recursive a command line option to tell it to merge > ignoring the whitespace-only changes, when it does the 3-way > file-level merge internally. > > Whatever came of this? I tried giving git merge a --ignore-whitespace > argument and the error message that followed show no equivalent > argument. I can think of two issues: - there was this -X patch by Junio, but I think it is a bad interface to pass merge backend options, as it is not closely coupled with the backend. Just imagine this: git merge -X ignore-whitespace -s resolve,recursive Does the "-X ignore-whitespace" impact resolve, recursive, or both? And we'd need some way to specify the option to the backend. I thought that git merge -s resolve,recursive/ignore-whitespace would be a sane syntax, but at least _I_ did not have a need to pass backend options yet. - more fundamental, how should the merge ignoring whitespace work? Which version would it take if the lines agree _except_ for whitespace changes? This needs to be well designed, as we have not only merges (where we have "ours" and "theirs"), but also rebases (where we have "theirs" and _then_ "ours"), and of course recursive merges when there is more than a single merge base (and there, it gets really nasty, so you better have the semantics of the whitespace-ignoring merge put down quite clearly). > It would sure come in handy right now. Is there some other way to do > it that I didn't find searching the mailing list? Of course, you could try to "normalize" the whitespace, and perform the merge after that. Ciao, Dscho ```