Re: [PATCH v5 0/3] don't imply that integration is always required before pushing

[Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>]

Hi Alex

On 13/07/2023 05:41, Alex Henrie wrote:
> Many times now, I have seen novices do the following:
> 
> 1. Start work on their own personal topic branch
> 2. Push the branch to origin
> 3. Rebase the branch onto origin/master
> 4. Try to push again, but Git says they need to pull
> 5. Pull and make a mess trying to reconcile the older topic branch with
>     the rebased topic branch
> 
> Help avoid this mistake by giving somewhat more general advice that does
> not assume that the user always wants to do reconciliation.
> 
> Changes from v4:
> - Don't show divergent branch advice in the middle of `git commit`
> - Soften the advice, but don't specifically mention force-pushing

All three patches look fine to me, they are definitely an improvement on 
the current advice.

Thanks for working on this,

Phillip

> Alex Henrie (3):
>    wt-status: don't show divergence advice when committing
>    remote: don't imply that integration is always required before pushing
>    push: don't imply that integration is always required before pushing
> 
>   builtin/checkout.c |  2 +-
>   builtin/push.c     | 24 +++++++++++------------
>   remote.c           |  8 +++++---
>   remote.h           |  3 ++-
>   t/t7508-status.sh  | 48 ++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------
>   wt-status.c        |  3 ++-
>   6 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
> 
> Range-diff against v4:
> 1:  9626721c13 < -:  ---------- remote: advise about force-pushing as an alternative to reconciliation
> -:  ---------- > 1:  e84989c4a6 wt-status: don't show divergence advice when committing
> -:  ---------- > 2:  9bb643df7e remote: don't imply that integration is always required before pushing
> 2:  209e86588a ! 3:  5ff9ecb51b push: advise about force-pushing as an alternative to reconciliation
>      @@ Metadata
>       Author: Alex Henrie <alexhenrie24@gmail.com>
>       
>        ## Commit message ##
>      -    push: advise about force-pushing as an alternative to reconciliation
>      +    push: don't imply that integration is always required before pushing
>       
>      -    Also, don't put `git pull` in an awkward parenthetical, because
>      -    `git pull` can always be used to reconcile branches and is the normal
>      -    way to do so.
>      +    In a narrow but common case, the user is the only author of a branch and
>      +    doesn't mind overwriting the corresponding branch on the remote. This
>      +    workflow is especially common on GitHub, GitLab, and Gerrit, which keep
>      +    a permanent record of every version of a branch that is pushed while a
>      +    pull request is open for that branch. On those platforms, force-pushing
>      +    is encouraged and is analogous to emailing a new version of a patchset.
>      +
>      +    When giving advice about divergent branches, tell the user about
>      +    `git pull`, but don't unconditionally instruct the user to do it. A less
>      +    prescriptive message will help prevent users from thinking that they are
>      +    required to create an integrated history instead of simply replacing the
>      +    previous history. Also, don't put `git pull` in an awkward
>      +    parenthetical, because `git pull` can always be used to reconcile
>      +    branches and is the normal way to do so.
>      +
>      +    Due to the difficulty of knowing which command for force-pushing is best
>      +    suited to the user's situation, no specific advice is given about
>      +    force-pushing. Instead, the user is directed to the Git documentation to
>      +    read about possible ways forward that do not involve integration.
>       
>           Signed-off-by: Alex Henrie <alexhenrie24@gmail.com>
>       
>      @@ builtin/push.c: static void setup_default_push_refspecs(int *flags, struct remot
>        	N_("Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind\n"
>       -	   "its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g.\n"
>       -	   "'git pull ...') before pushing again.\n"
>      -+	   "its remote counterpart. Use 'git pull' to integrate the remote changes\n"
>      -+	   "before pushing again, or use 'git push --force' to delete the remote\n"
>      -+	   "changes and replace them with your own.\n"
>      ++	   "its remote counterpart. If you want to integrate the remote changes,\n"
>      ++	   "use 'git pull' before pushing again.\n"
>        	   "See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.");
>        
>        static const char message_advice_checkout_pull_push[] =
>        	N_("Updates were rejected because a pushed branch tip is behind its remote\n"
>       -	   "counterpart. Check out this branch and integrate the remote changes\n"
>       -	   "(e.g. 'git pull ...') before pushing again.\n"
>      -+	   "counterpart. Check out this branch and use 'git pull' to integrate the\n"
>      -+	   "remote changes before pushing again, or use 'git push --force' to delete\n"
>      -+	   "the remote changes and replace them with your own.\n"
>      ++	   "counterpart. If you want to integrate the remote changes, use 'git pull'\n"
>      ++	   "before pushing again.\n"
>        	   "See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.");
>        
>        static const char message_advice_ref_fetch_first[] =
>      @@ builtin/push.c: static void setup_default_push_refspecs(int *flags, struct remot
>       -	   "(e.g., 'git pull ...') before pushing again.\n"
>       +	N_("Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do not\n"
>       +	   "have locally. This is usually caused by another repository pushing to\n"
>      -+	   "the same ref. Use 'git pull' to integrate the remote changes before\n"
>      -+	   "pushing again, or use 'git push --force' to delete the remote changes\n"
>      -+	   "and replace them with your own.\n"
>      ++	   "the same ref. If you want to integrate the remote changes, use\n"
>      ++	   "'git pull' before pushing again.\n"
>        	   "See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.");
>        
>        static const char message_advice_ref_already_exists[] =
>      @@ builtin/push.c: static const char message_advice_ref_needs_force[] =
>       -	   "to integrate those changes locally (e.g., 'git pull ...')\n"
>       -	   "before forcing an update.\n");
>       +	N_("Updates were rejected because the tip of the remote-tracking branch has\n"
>      -+	   "been updated since the last checkout. Use 'git pull' to integrate the\n"
>      -+	   "remote changes before pushing again, or use 'git push --force' to delete\n"
>      -+	   "the remote changes and replace them with your own.\n");
>      ++	   "been updated since the last checkout. If you want to integrate the\n"
>      ++	   "remote changes, use 'git pull' before pushing again.\n"
>      ++	   "See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.");
>        
>        static void advise_pull_before_push(void)
>        {