# Why won't "git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA" do anything?

3 messages from 2022-01-31 to 2022-01-31. Participants: Josef Wolf, Torsten B��gershausen, brian m. carlson.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/57340

## Josef Wolf, 2022-01-31 11:01

Subject: Why won't "git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA" do anything?
Message-ID: <20220131110149.GE16463@raven.inka.de>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20220131110149.GE16463%40raven.inka.de

```
Hello,

I've added "* text=auto" to an existing repo with a completely linear history.

Now, as expected, every rebase operation gives me lots of conflicts, which are
hard to resolve.

So I'd like to clean up the history:

  $ git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA

But this turns out to be a no-op? It says immediately

  Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/wip-normalize

without even the counter which is usually output to show progress during an
interactive rebase as it is working through the rebase-todo. I can confirm
that nothing has happened by checking the sha of the branch.

So, what am I missing? How would I renormalize all the commits of a branch?
The branch has linear history, no merges there.

Thanks,

-- 
Josef Wolf
jw@raven.inka.de

```

## Torsten B��gershausen, 2022-01-31 15:51

Subject: Re: Why won't "git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA" do anything?
Message-ID: <20220131155124.u25j4bit3ahusgsc@tb-raspi4>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20220131155124.u25j4bit3ahusgsc%40tb-raspi4
In-Reply-To: <20220131110149.GE16463@raven.inka.de>

```
On Mon, Jan 31, 2022 at 12:01:50PM +0100, Josef Wolf wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've added "* text=auto" to an existing repo with a completely linear history.

What exactly does this mean ?
Is there one branch, several branches ?
No merges at all ?

>
> Now, as expected, every rebase operation gives me lots of conflicts, which are
> hard to resolve.
>
> So I'd like to clean up the history:
>
>   $ git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA
>
> But this turns out to be a no-op? It says immediately
>
>   Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/wip-normalize
>
> without even the counter which is usually output to show progress during an
> interactive rebase as it is working through the rebase-todo. I can confirm
> that nothing has happened by checking the sha of the branch.
>
> So, what am I missing? How would I renormalize all the commits of a branch?
That is a tricky question.
If you renormalize all commits of one branch,
you create a complete new history, right ?
Just out of interest:
Why do you want to do this ?
And I have the slight feeling, that Git does not support this
"renormalize all the commits of a branch" workflow, but I may be wrong.

Is you repo public ?
Or could you come up with an example ?

> The branch has linear history, no merges there.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Josef Wolf
> jw@raven.inka.de

```

## brian m. carlson, 2022-01-31 23:30

Subject: Re: Why won't "git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA" do anything?
Message-ID: <YfhxESEsZo7CwFiz@camp.crustytoothpaste.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YfhxESEsZo7CwFiz%40camp.crustytoothpaste.net
In-Reply-To: <20220131110149.GE16463@raven.inka.de>

```
On 2022-01-31 at 11:01:50, Josef Wolf wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've added "* text=auto" to an existing repo with a completely linear history.
> 
> Now, as expected, every rebase operation gives me lots of conflicts, which are
> hard to resolve.
> 
> So I'd like to clean up the history:
> 
>   $ git rebase -Xrenormalize -i $REBASE_SHA
> 
> But this turns out to be a no-op? It says immediately
> 
>   Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/wip-normalize
> 
> without even the counter which is usually output to show progress during an
> interactive rebase as it is working through the rebase-todo. I can confirm
> that nothing has happened by checking the sha of the branch.
> 
> So, what am I missing? How would I renormalize all the commits of a branch?
> The branch has linear history, no merges there.

I think what you probably want is to add the -f option.  By default, Git
doesn't perform a rebase when the current branch is up to date with the
base branch.  If you want to do it anyway, in this case, to rewrite
commits, then -f should make that happen.
-- 
brian m. carlson (he/him or they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA

```