On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 4:15 AM Alex Henrie [off-list ref] wrote:
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`.
Heh, what would it take to convince you there is such an effort? :) -
sparse and minor as my contributions are, I certainly believe that is
a "natural" effort that I will do what I can to support.
That seems like an achievable goal, and I don't think it
would take multiple years, maybe one year at the most.
My estimate is based on the observation that there are still, several
years after --rebase-merges was introduced, git GUIs that don't handle
it right - eg Jetbrains IDEA:
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-232160/Rebase-merges-is-not-properly-supported
This kind of functionality change should be slow, not because it's a
huge amount of work, but more because it takes time for the entire
ecosystem to adapt. Git releases basically-monthly, but many of the
systems that users use git with release far less often; similarly,
it's helpful to users who use a mix of current and older systems (I'm
looking at you, CentOS 7) for the introduction and recommendation of a
behavior change to come *long* before its defaulting.
The process
would look something like this:
1. Add a --no-rebase-merges option to `git rebase`.
2. Add a rebase.merges config option.
Yes and yes! I alluded to this in
https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAPMMpoj6E-85a59EaHD2aR_oKA=_u78qRV+wp8mqXkR39KctmA@mail.gmail.com/ (local)
but didn't feel I'd likely to make a solid change along these lines.
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.
Makes sense to me!
4. Change the `git pull` advice to recommend --rebase=merges and
pull.rebase=merges.
I'm not sure why this would be step 4 - I would (and did try to) make
it step 1 :)
5. Wait a couple of releases.
As I noted above, I believe it should be far more than a couple.
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`.
Makes sense to me!
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.
I'm sold, except insofar as I think the right approach is to move step
4 to be the first :)