Re: Using git commit --amend on a commit with an empty message

Chris Webb [off-list ref] writes:

In fact, we even fail to start the editor if --allow-empty-message is
explicitly provided:

  $ git commit --allow-empty --allow-empty-message -m ''
  $ git commit --amend --allow-empty-message
  fatal: commit has empty message

Assuming this isn't intentional for some reason I don't understand, I think
this is the correct tiny fix? make test succeeds fine both before and after.

Yeah, it is a "bug" that exists only because nobody sane uses empty
message commits, let alone tries to amend such commits, hence went
unnoticed for a long time.

The patch looks sane; if we want to keep this as a feature or a
bugfix, we may want to pretect it with a new test, though.

Thanks.

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

Yeah, it is a "bug" that exists only because nobody sane uses empty
message commits, let alone tries to amend such commits, hence went
unnoticed for a long time.

Quite. I only noticed it because this is the default behaviour of Github
gists and I wanted to replace the empty commit messages with more meaningful
ones.

The patch looks sane; if we want to keep this as a feature or a
bugfix, we may want to pretect it with a new test, though.

Yes, it's hardly something people will test often. Okay, I'll send a version
two with a suitable test.

Best wishes,

Chris.

If git commit --amend is used on a commit with an empty message, it fails
unless -m is given, whether or not --allow-empty-message is specified.

Instead, allow it to proceed to the editor with an empty commit message.
Unless --allow-empty-message is in force, it will still abort later if an
empty message is saved from the editor. (This check was already necessary
to prevent a non-empty commit message being edited to an empty one.)

Add a test for --amend --edit of an empty commit message which fails
without this fix, as it's a rare case that won't get frequently tested
otherwise.

Signed-off-by: Chris Webb <redacted>
---
 builtin/commit.c  |    2 +-
 t/t7501-commit.sh |   15 +++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/builtin/commit.c b/builtin/commit.c
index f43eaaf..6515da2 100644
--- a/builtin/commit.c
+++ b/builtin/commit.c

@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ static int prepare_to_commit(const char *index_file, const char *prefix,
 		hook_arg1 = "message";
 	} else if (use_message) {
 		buffer = strstr(use_message_buffer, "\n\n");
-		if (!buffer || buffer[2] == '\0')
+		if (!use_editor && (!buffer || buffer[2] == '\0'))
 			die(_("commit has empty message"));
 		strbuf_add(&sb, buffer + 2, strlen(buffer + 2));
 		hook_arg1 = "commit";

diff --git a/t/t7501-commit.sh b/t/t7501-commit.sh
index b20ca0e..5ad636b 100755
--- a/t/t7501-commit.sh
+++ b/t/t7501-commit.sh

@@ -138,6 +138,21 @@ test_expect_success '--amend --edit' '
 	test_cmp expect msg
 '
 
+test_expect_success '--amend --edit of empty message' '
+	cat >replace <<-\EOF &&
+	#!/bin/sh
+	echo "amended" >"$1"
+	EOF
+	chmod 755 replace &&
+	echo amended >expect &&
+	git commit --allow-empty --allow-empty-message -m "" &&
+	echo more bongo >file &&
+	git add file &&
+	EDITOR=./replace git commit --edit --amend &&
+	git diff-tree -s --format=%s HEAD >msg &&
+	test_cmp expect msg
+'
+
 test_expect_success '-m --edit' '
 	echo amended >expect &&
 	git commit --allow-empty -m buffer &&

-- 
1.7.10