# [PATCH] Documentation/merge-options: clarify --squash behavior

4 messages from 2019-04-24 to 2019-04-26. Participants: Vishal Verma, Junio C Hamano, vishal@kernel.org.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/50986

## Vishal Verma, 2019-04-24 21:22

Subject: [PATCH] Documentation/merge-options: clarify --squash behavior
Message-ID: <20190424212212.10039-1-vishal.l.verma@intel.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20190424212212.10039-1-vishal.l.verma%40intel.com

```
Add a note to the --squash option for git-merge to clarify its behavior
with respect to --commit. When --squash is supplied, 'option_commit' is
silently dropped. This can be surprising to a user who tries to override
the no-commit behavior of squash using --commit explicitly.

Signed-off-by: Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@intel.com>
---

There may be an argument to make --commit 'just work' with squash, but
that might involve changing option_commit from OPT_BOOL to something
that can distinguish between the default, what's requested on the
command line, or the --no- version.

 Documentation/merge-options.txt | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/merge-options.txt b/Documentation/merge-options.txt
index 92a7d936c1..0fd97720d8 100644
--- a/Documentation/merge-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-options.txt
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ merge.
 +
 With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This
 option can be used to override --squash.
++
+With --squash, a --commit option does not make sense, and will be ignored
+(HEAD will not be moved in spite of --commit).
 
 -s <strategy>::
 --strategy=<strategy>::
-- 
2.20.1


```

## Junio C Hamano, 2019-04-25 04:16

Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation/merge-options: clarify --squash behavior
Message-ID: <xmqqr29qyb1i.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqr29qyb1i.fsf%40gitster-ct.c.googlers.com
In-Reply-To: <20190424212212.10039-1-vishal.l.verma@intel.com>

```
Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@intel.com> writes:

> Add a note to the --squash option for git-merge to clarify its behavior
> with respect to --commit. When --squash is supplied, 'option_commit' is
> silently dropped. This can be surprising to a user who tries to override
> the no-commit behavior of squash using --commit explicitly.
>
> Signed-off-by: Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@intel.com>
> ---
>
> There may be an argument to make --commit 'just work' with squash, but
> that might involve changing option_commit from OPT_BOOL to something
> that can distinguish between the default, what's requested on the
> command line, or the --no- version.

I think it is bad to silently ignore the option.  With or without
this documentation update, I think it is sensible to update the code
so that it errors out when "--squash --commit" are both given at the
same time, just like when "--squash --no-ff" is given.

Or make it "just work" as you said.  Using a boolean variable as
tristate is something we do in many places and it by itself is not a
rocket science.  You initialize the variable to -1 (unset), let
parse_options() to set it to 0/1 when "--[no-]commit" is seen, and
inspect after parse_options() finishes.  If the variable is still
-1, you know the user wants "the default" behaviour.

The "default" behaviour you are proposing would probably be
something like

        if (option_commit < 0) {
                /* 
                 * default to record the result in a commit.
                 * but --squash traditionally does not.
                 */
                if (!squash)
                        option_commit = 1;
                else
                        option_commit = 0;
        }

But I suspect that the option parsing part is the least difficult in
the "make it just work" change.  That is because I think that the
machinery to record the result in a commit is not expecting to be
asked to create a single-parent commit to record the result of the
squashing, so there may be need for adjusting to how the result
wants to be recorded before the code makes a commit.


```

## Vishal Verma, 2019-04-25 16:26

Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation/merge-options: clarify --squash behavior
Message-ID: <dfc0a40233677ce0e1d9d073c41b6f0fea3bf746.camel@stellar.sh>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dfc0a40233677ce0e1d9d073c41b6f0fea3bf746.camel%40stellar.sh
In-Reply-To: <xmqqr29qyb1i.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

```

On Thu, 2019-04-25 at 13:16 +0900, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> 
> I think it is bad to silently ignore the option.  With or without
> this documentation update, I think it is sensible to update the code
> so that it errors out when "--squash --commit" are both given at the
> same time, just like when "--squash --no-ff" is given.

Yes that makes sense.

> Or make it "just work" as you said.  Using a boolean variable as
> tristate is something we do in many places and it by itself is not a
> rocket science.  You initialize the variable to -1 (unset), let
> parse_options() to set it to 0/1 when "--[no-]commit" is seen, and
> inspect after parse_options() finishes.  If the variable is still
> -1, you know the user wants "the default" behaviour.

Ah I see - I was conflating OPT_BOOL with the parameter being a boolean
as well without checking, but I see now that isn't the case.

> 
> The "default" behaviour you are proposing would probably be
> something like
> 
>         if (option_commit < 0) {
>                 /* 
>                  * default to record the result in a commit.
>                  * but --squash traditionally does not.
>                  */
>                 if (!squash)
>                         option_commit = 1;
>                 else
>                         option_commit = 0;
>         }
> 
> But I suspect that the option parsing part is the least difficult in
> the "make it just work" change.  That is because I think that the
> machinery to record the result in a commit is not expecting to be
> asked to create a single-parent commit to record the result of the
> squashing, so there may be need for adjusting to how the result
> wants to be recorded before the code makes a commit.

Yes I was going to try to allow the commit option as an experiment, and
just see what happens. For now I'll send a v2 that has a doc update as
well as prints a warning using the above technique.

I'll dig more into what allowing --commit actually means (as time
allows) - I'm definitely a newbie with git internals, and indeed this is
my first posting here.

Thanks for the feedback!

	-Vishal


```

## vishal@kernel.org, 2019-04-26 21:17

Subject: [PATCH v2] builtin/merges: clarify --squash behavior with --commit
Message-ID: <20190426211703.25604-1-vishal@kernel.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20190426211703.25604-1-vishal%40kernel.org
In-Reply-To: <dfc0a40233677ce0e1d9d073c41b6f0fea3bf746.camel@stellar.sh>

```
From: Vishal Verma <vishal@stellar.sh>

Convert option_commit to tristate, representing the states of
'default/untouched', 'enabled-by-cli', 'disabled-by-cli'. With this in
place, check whether option_commit was enabled by cli when squashing a
merge. If so, error out, as this is not supported.

Add a note to the --squash option for git-merge to clarify the
incompatibility.

Previously, when --squash was supplied, 'option_commit' was silently
dropped. This could have been surprising to a user who tried to override
the no-commit behavior of squash using --commit explicitly.

Cc: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Cc: Rafael Ascensão <rafa.almas@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Vishal Verma <vishal@stellar.sh>
---

v2:
 - Error out when both --squash and --commit are supplied (Junio)
 - Adjust the documentation accordingly.

 Documentation/merge-options.txt |  2 ++
 builtin/merge.c                 | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/merge-options.txt b/Documentation/merge-options.txt
index 92a7d936c1..263b194247 100644
--- a/Documentation/merge-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-options.txt
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ merge.
 +
 With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This
 option can be used to override --squash.
++
+With --squash, --commit is not allowed, and will fail.
 
 -s <strategy>::
 --strategy=<strategy>::
diff --git a/builtin/merge.c b/builtin/merge.c
index 5ce8946d39..98f268ac57 100644
--- a/builtin/merge.c
+++ b/builtin/merge.c
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ static const char * const builtin_merge_usage[] = {
 };
 
 static int show_diffstat = 1, shortlog_len = -1, squash;
-static int option_commit = 1;
+static int option_commit = -1;
 static int option_edit = -1;
 static int allow_trivial = 1, have_message, verify_signatures;
 static int overwrite_ignore = 1;
@@ -1304,9 +1304,25 @@ int cmd_merge(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (verbosity < 0)
 		show_diffstat = 0;
 
+	/*
+	 * This indicates option_commit was influenced by the command line.
+	 * Check and error out for the squash case.
+	 */
+	if ((option_commit > 0) && squash)
+		die(_("You cannot combine --squash with --commit."));
+
+	/* If option_commit is the default '-1', we can 'enable' it */
+	if (option_commit < 0)
+		option_commit = 1;
+
 	if (squash) {
 		if (fast_forward == FF_NO)
 			die(_("You cannot combine --squash with --no-ff."));
+		/*
+		 * squash can now silently disable option_commit - this is not
+		 * a problem as it is only overriding the default, not a user
+		 * supplied option.
+		 */
 		option_commit = 0;
 	}
 
-- 
2.20.1


```