Re: git bikeshedding (Re: triggers in dpkg, and dpkg maintenance)

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 09:16:59AM -0300, Otavio Salvador wrote:
> Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> > What I am trying to achieve is to use git in the proper way: that is,
> > in a way which makes merging work properly.
> >
> > Insisting that I use git in a manner which makes merges break but
> > gives prettier logfiles is absurd.
> 
> That's why you should avoid using the branch as basis to others until
> it's clean and also avoid to make it public (without a reason) too.

This makes it more difficult to ask for review while the branch is in
progress, which is a valuable property. It is ridiculous to artificially
avoid making branches public; a branch is a useful means of
collaboration and we should take advantage of it as such.

> Usually, I make branches public when my log looks sane.
> 
> And it's not absurd, is to allow everyone to be kept sane when looking
> the log in 5 years forward.

I have never once run into this problem with other revision control
systems in which branching and merging are common. Somehow it just never
seems to be a real issue. I contend that dpkg is not big enough for it
to become a real issue.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@debian.org]