Re: Git commit generation numbers

Jeff King [off-list ref] wrote:

Out of curiosity, what don't you like about the generation cache?

The thing I hate about it is very fundamental: I think it's a hack around a basic git design mistake. And it's a mistake we have known about for a long time.

Now, I don't think it's a *fatal* mistake, but I do find it very broken to basically say "we made a mistake in the original commit design, and instead of fixing it we create a separate workaround for it".

THAT I find distasteful. My reaction is that if we're going to add generation numbers, then were should just do it the way we should have done them originally, rather than as some separate hack.

See? That's why I wouldn't have any problem with adding a separate cache on top of it, if it's really required, but I would hope that it isn't really needed.

So a cache in itself is not necessarily wrong. But leaving the original design mistake in place IS.

And fixing it really ended up being a very tiny patch, no?

     Linus