Re: [PATCH v2 7/7] commit-reach: terminate merge-base walk when one paint side is exhausted

[Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>]

On 6/24/2026 10:47 AM, Kristofer Karlsson wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 at 16:02, Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> wrote:

>>> -     test_trace2_data paint_down_to_common steps 81 <trace-half.txt
>>> +     test_trace2_data paint_down_to_common steps 57 <trace-half.txt
>>>  '
>> I love to see these steps change. If you take my suggestion to
>> update more tests with these checks, then this diff will get bigger
>> (but in a deserved way).
> 
> I will try to add them to some (but not all) tests since it's more
> closely related to performance than correctness and I want to
> avoid making too many tests overly fragile.
In this case, I think it's more about protecting all of our special-
cased termination conditions. The rigidity means that it is hard to
accidentally change the behavior. It does have the downside that
more tests need to change if there is an intentional change, but it
also gives the same _evidence_ that the change has the intended
impact.

We are definitely leaning into personal preferences, though. There
is no hard rule one way or another.

Thanks,
-Stolee