On Tue, Nov 02, 2021 at 07:20:03AM +0000, Werner LEMBERG wrote: > > >> You absolutely _did_ rewrite history ... not just once, but twice! > >> You deleted an _entire branch_ of published development history, > >> then after my subsequent push had reinstated it, you deleted it > >> once again! If that isn't rewriting history, then I'd like to know > >> what you would call it. [...] > > Keith, what Brandon does it *exactly* what is common if you use the > GUI of gitlab, github, and other such sites. > > * If you want something added to the repository, you create a PR (push > request, github terminology) or a MR (merge request, gitlab > terminology). This essentially sets up a new, temporary git branch > that holds your submission. > > * You do `git push -f` again and again until this branch is in good > shape, i.e., the commit messages are OK, the reviewers are > satisfied, etc., etc. > > * Finally, you press the `Merge` button, which merges the branch and > by default also deletes this temporary git branch ??? such branches > are normally not meant to be retained. Depending on the project, > this might also squash all commits of the branch into a single > commit before merging.
Yeah, this is super common because people want the official history to be straight line. Both for human (simple to understand) and performance (a zillion nodes is slower). We fixed the performance problems in BitKeeper but didn't address the human problem. There is an easy fix that I called the "event stack". It's a straight line graph that records each tip in the integration repository. So when Keith pushed his branch, that might have been 20 commits on the branch, but it is only one node in the event stack. I had planned to have a "bk pop" command that popped off the last push or commit. The idea is stuff like "git log" would tell you events and "git log -v" would show you the real graph with all the nodes. I implemented a hack version of this for Linus when he was using BitKeeper so there was a way to pop off the last push if the crap hit the fan.
