Re: Why the default action for pull is merge, but not rebase?

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Eugene Sajine wrote:

> Thanks for prompt answer. But let me clarify:
>
> When you do pull git performs:
>
> fetch of the remote branch to the FETCH_HEAD
> and then merge of FETCH_HEAD into the local branch
>
> What I'm saying is that your local branch should be rebased on top of
> FETCH_HEAD instead
> 
> In this case there is no such thing as "often rebased public branch".

Ah, but there is.

Imagine you are Junio and just received a pull request from Pat.
Then you might try:

 $ git pull pat for-junio

which will do all the fetching and merging magic that "git pull"
is known for.  Now if pat's for-junio branch is based on the tip
of your current branch, this will be a fast-forward and it doesn't
matter whether you merge or rebase.  But what if there are some
intervening commits?

 $ git pull eric for-junio
 $ git pull pat for-junio

If this pull were the rebasing kind, the result would be for Eric's
commits to be rewritten based on Pat's.