Re: [PATCH] git-subtree: Add prune mode

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 12:41 PM, Santi Béjar [off-list ref] wrote:

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 4:54 AM, Avery Pennarun [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 5:25 AM, Santi Béjar [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

Add prune mode (flag --prune) with the following properties:

* The history must be as clean as possible
* The directory content must be equal to the external module,
 at least when you add/update it[b]
* The subproject should be able to switch back and forth between
 different versions.

[b] A consequence of this is that it loses all changes
   made in the subtree. If they are important you have to extract
   them, apply them and add the subproject back.

I think I started to reply to this before but I can't quite remember
what happened.  Anyway, I have several concerns with this patch:

- calling it "prune" is pretty incorrect.  It doesn't remove anything
from your history.

It removes the history of the subproject.
And --squash does not squash your history. We are talking about the
subproject, not the superproject.

quoted

 It silently loses patches from your tree, but
that's not "pruning" really.  I suggest "--squash
--discard-local-changes" or something.  ie. it's a variant of squash,
and it throws things away.  We want both of those to be clear.

It's not a variant of squash, it is completely different, but it
shares some properties. One tries to keep your local changes, the
other no.

I just wanted to add one thing. For me "--squash
--discard-local-changes" would be something like --squash but with
"git merge -s theirs", so totally different from the --prune mode. I
cannot be a flag to --squash.

I'm open to discuss the name of the flag, but for now I found --prune
the best one. And as it is only used with "git subtree add" I don't
think it should be about "discard local changes".

Have fun,
Santi