Re: [PATCH] pull: conflict hint pull.rebase suggestion should offer "merges" vs "true"

On Thu, Feb 16, 2023 at 5:31 AM Tao Klerks [off-list ref] wrote:

If there's an appetite for it, I would love to contribute to a
multi-year adventure to change git's behavior, little by little, until
the behavior of "rebase=merges" is the default, and the old behavior
becomes a different option like
"rebase=copy-merged-commits-to-flatten"

I know you had a lot to say in your last email, but I'd like to focus
on this point. I would be OK with the proposed patch if it were part
of a larger effort to make --rebase-merges the default behavior of
`git rebase`. That seems like an achievable goal, and I don't think it
would take multiple years, maybe one year at the most. The process
would look something like this:

1. Add a --no-rebase-merges option to `git rebase`.

2. Add a rebase.merges config option.

3. Add a warning to `git rebase` that appears if rebase.merges is
unset and neither --rebase-merges nor --no-rebase-merges is given. The
warning would advise the user that the default behavior of `git
rebase` will change in a future release and suggest setting
rebase.merges=no-rebase-cousins to get the new behavior now.

4. Change the `git pull` advice to recommend --rebase=merges and
pull.rebase=merges.

5. Wait a couple of releases.

6. Change the default behavior of `git rebase` to `git rebase
--rebase-merges` and the default behavior of `git pull --rebase` to
`git pull --rebase=merges`. At the same time, remove the warning from
`git rebase`. The old `git pull` behavior would still be available as
`git pull --rebase=true`.

7. Change the `git pull` advice to recommend the short and simple
--rebase option again (leaving the recommendation of
pull.rebase=merges for the config option).

Does that sound reasonable? I think I could lend a hand with steps 1-3.

-Alex