# Ugly merge messages 2 messages from 2005-09-19 to 2005-09-19. Participants: Linus Torvalds, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/1853 ## Linus Torvalds, 2005-09-19 00:05 Subject: Ugly merge messages Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Pine.LNX.4.58.0509181649390.9106%40g5.osdl.org ``` Junio, your merge messages are pretty ugly. You often merge from a local branch in the current tree, which is fine, but it generates a message like Octopus merge of the following: refs/heads/pu from . branch 'nuker' of . branch 'merge' of . which just looks wrong. At least to me, the dot looks more like a end-of-incomplete-sentence than a source of data. Also, the "first" branch is really special, since that's the branch you're merging _into_. Wouldn't it look a lot nicer if this read as Octopus merge of the following: branch 'nuker' branch 'merge' into branch 'pu' or something? But that still has the problem that the single-line description (ie gitk, shortlog etc) is totally useless. So maybe we shouldn't care about the destination branch (we don't do that for normal merges), and just aim for something like Octopus merge of branches 'nuker', 'merge' instead? Hmm? At least for the kernel, the shortlog really is pretty important, because the full log is often so big that it's easy to miss things in it. Linus ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2005-09-19 00:12 Subject: Re: Ugly merge messages Message-ID: <7vd5n5zzhy.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vd5n5zzhy.fsf%40assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net In-Reply-To: ``` Linus Torvalds writes: > your merge messages are pretty ugly. Sorry, I've been using what have been in "pu" branch for some time but this time around I used what is in the master (and 0.99.7). Post-0.99.7 one produces a single liner for an Octopus. I think it makes sense as you suggest to say just branch names of what are merged when we know they come from local. ```