# [PATCH] diff: fix --merge-base with annotated tags

2 messages from 2023-10-01 to 2023-10-02. Participants: Alyssa Ross, Junio C Hamano.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/60286

## Alyssa Ross, 2023-10-01 15:18

Subject: [PATCH] diff: fix --merge-base with annotated tags
Message-ID: <20231001151845.3621551-1-hi@alyssa.is>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20231001151845.3621551-1-hi%40alyssa.is

```
Checking early for OBJ_COMMIT excludes other objects that can be
resolved to commits, like annotated tags.  If we remove it, annotated
tags will be resolved and handled just fine by
lookup_commit_reference(), and if we are given something that can't be
resolved to a commit, we'll still get a useful error message, e.g.:

> error: object 21ab162211ac3ef13c37603ca88b27e9c7e0d40b is a tree, not a commit
> fatal: no merge base found

Signed-off-by: Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
---
 diff-lib.c                           |  2 --
 t/t4068-diff-symmetric-merge-base.sh | 13 ++++++++++---
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/diff-lib.c b/diff-lib.c
index 6b0c6a7180..543398b4d8 100644
--- a/diff-lib.c
+++ b/diff-lib.c
@@ -572,8 +572,6 @@ void diff_get_merge_base(const struct rev_info *revs, struct object_id *mb)
 		struct object *obj = revs->pending.objects[i].item;
 		if (obj->flags)
 			die(_("--merge-base does not work with ranges"));
-		if (obj->type != OBJ_COMMIT)
-			die(_("--merge-base only works with commits"));
 	}
 
 	/*
diff --git a/t/t4068-diff-symmetric-merge-base.sh b/t/t4068-diff-symmetric-merge-base.sh
index 2d650d8f10..541642650f 100755
--- a/t/t4068-diff-symmetric-merge-base.sh
+++ b/t/t4068-diff-symmetric-merge-base.sh
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 	echo c >c &&
 	git add c &&
 	git commit -m C &&
-	git tag commit-C &&
+	git tag -m commit-C commit-C &&
 	git merge -m D main &&
 	git tag commit-D &&
 	git checkout main &&
@@ -109,6 +109,13 @@ do
 		test_cmp expect actual
 	'
 
+	test_expect_success "$cmd --merge-base with annotated tag" '
+		git checkout main &&
+		git $cmd commit-C >expect &&
+		git $cmd --merge-base commit-C >actual &&
+		test_cmp expect actual
+	'
+
 	test_expect_success "$cmd --merge-base with one commit and unstaged changes" '
 		git checkout main &&
 		test_when_finished git reset --hard &&
@@ -143,7 +150,7 @@ do
 	test_expect_success "$cmd --merge-base with non-commit" '
 		git checkout main &&
 		test_must_fail git $cmd --merge-base main^{tree} 2>err &&
-		test_i18ngrep "fatal: --merge-base only works with commits" err
+		test_i18ngrep "is a tree, not a commit" err
 	'
 
 	test_expect_success "$cmd --merge-base with no merge bases and one commit" '
@@ -169,7 +176,7 @@ do
 
 	test_expect_success "$cmd --merge-base commit and non-commit" '
 		test_must_fail git $cmd --merge-base br2 main^{tree} 2>err &&
-		test_i18ngrep "fatal: --merge-base only works with commits" err
+		test_i18ngrep "is a tree, not a commit" err
 	'
 
 	test_expect_success "$cmd --merge-base with no merge bases and two commits" '

base-commit: 43c8a30d150ecede9709c1f2527c8fba92c65f40
-- 
2.42.0


```

## Junio C Hamano, 2023-10-02 18:54

Subject: Re: [PATCH] diff: fix --merge-base with annotated tags
Message-ID: <xmqq4jj84zyb.fsf@gitster.g>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqq4jj84zyb.fsf%40gitster.g
In-Reply-To: <20231001151845.3621551-1-hi@alyssa.is>

```
Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is> writes:

> Checking early for OBJ_COMMIT excludes other objects that can be
> resolved to commits, like annotated tags.  If we remove it, annotated
> tags will be resolved and handled just fine by
> lookup_commit_reference(), and if we are given something that can't be
> resolved to a commit, we'll still get a useful error message, e.g.:
>
>> error: object 21ab162211ac3ef13c37603ca88b27e9c7e0d40b is a tree, not a commit
>> fatal: no merge base found

Interesting.  0f5a1d44 (builtin/diff-index: learn --merge-base,
2020-09-20) claims that it took inspiration from "git diff A...B"
but forgot that it needs to accept any commit-ish.

With a devil's advocate hat on, I have to wonder if it is really a
useful error message to spew a long hexadecimal string when the user
would certainly have gave a more mnemonic HEAD^{tree} or something,
but the original message does not say which command line argument it
did not like anyway, so the patch is a net improvement.

Will queue.  Thanks.


```