Re: Rebasing a branch with merges

On Fri, Jan 6, 2017 at 3:28 PM, Philip Oakley [off-list ref] wrote:

From: "Robert Dailey" <redacted>

quoted

Here's the scenario:

I create a topic branch so one other developer and myself can work on
a feature that takes 2 weeks to complete. During that 2 week period,
changes are occurring on master that I need in my topic branch. Since
I have a collaborator on the branch, I opt for merges instead of
rebase.

Each day I merge from master to the topic branch, which changes code
I'm actively working in and requires semantic changes (functions
renamed, moved, etc).

Once I'm ready to merge the topic branch back into master, I have two
options (bearing in mind the goal is to keep history as clean as
possible. Furthermore this implies that the constant merging into
topic from master has made the topic branch look unwieldy and
difficult to audit):

a broader question zero;
0. Is the merge always clean? Do you always do a preparatory fixup! to
ensure that the merge will be clean?

Ensuring that the merge will be clean should greatly simplify your decision
about process.

I don't understand what you're asking. How would I do a fixup with
merges? Can you explain a bit? Normally the only time I use fixup! or
squash! is for local changes prior to pushing.

quoted

1. Do a squash merge, which keeps history clean but we lose context
for the important bits (the commits representing units of work that
contribute to the topic itself).

2. Do a final rebase prior to merging.

#2 doesn't seem to be possible due to patch ordering. For example, if
I have real commits after merge commits that depend on those changes
from master being present as a base at that point in time, the rebase
will cause the patch before it to no longer include those changes from
master.

How much of the historic fixups to cover changes on master do you want to
keep visible? i.e. how many fork-points are truly needed (a. by you, b. by
the project - personal knowledge vs corporate knowledge).?

Again, I do not understand. Maybe the first question you asked needs
to be understood before I can answer this one. Sorry for the trouble.