Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Andrew Savchenko <bircoph@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] On banning merge commits
Date: Sun, 08 May 2016 09:15:44
Message-Id: 20160508121529.fb4b77c5d47bf662a843f53b@gentoo.org
In Reply to: [gentoo-dev] On banning merge commits by Patrice Clement
1 Hi all,
2
3 On Sun, 8 May 2016 01:52:22 +0200 Patrice Clement wrote:
4 > Hi gents
5 >
6 > After yet another discussion about git in the #gentoo-dev channel tonight, the
7 > topic of merge commits came up for the umpteenth time.
8 >
9 > We all seem to agree merge commits are really bad design, add clutter to the
10 > log graph after a while and should be banned altogether from reaching the
11 > central repository.
12
13 No, not all of us.
14
15 > As of now, no policy is in place yet to keep developers from pushing merge
16 > commits.
17 >
18 > What is the correct course of action? I would very much like it to be worded in
19 > a document (GLEP and/or Wiki page) so that confusion is avoided and we all are
20 > on the same page on this topic.
21
22 Sometimes merge commits are desired. But they should be used
23 wisely. Of course if used randomly and without thought they may
24 become disaster.
25
26 I see nothing wrong if developer makes series of large non-trivial
27 changes in a separate branch and then merges this branch with
28 current head after good testing. Another case is when some user
29 submits a long branch of patches and developer merges it from
30 external repository (with proper testing of course).
31
32 If one have problems reading logs with merge commits, use gitk
33 or similar tools. I had the same hate relationship towards
34 non-linear workflow after switching from cvs and svn to git, but
35 with time comes the understanding that git workflow is the right
36 way to go, it just takes time to get accustomed to it.
37
38 Best regards,
39 Andrew Savchenko