Re: An alternate model for preparing partial commits

["Stephen Sinclair" <radarsat1@gmail.com>]

Hello,

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Robert Anderson <rwa000@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 6:33 AM, Johannes Schindelin
> <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> wrote:
>> Now, this is not necessarily what everybody wants, which is why many
>> people are fine with the index.
>
> But it is something they should want, and should have, if they care
> about the quality of their commits.  Especially in the common case of
> a project with development lines which have some sort of policy about
> build/test requirements.  How do you ensure your commits obey that
> policy if you cannot verify it?  That is why the index is not a
> sufficient mechanism for preparing partial commits.  It's fine for
> quick and dirty operation when the factorization of the conflated
> changes is obvious and trivial.  It is not sufficient otherwise.

I just thought I'd throw in my $0.02 here.  There's something
fundamental I think I'm not getting about this argument: it seems to
be based on the premise that partial commits allow untested tree
states to enter the repository.  However, having gotten used to the
git way of things, I personally don't see the problem with allowing
bad commits, as long as they are not pushed to public.

That is, I use the git add -p command all the time when I realize I've
just done two things that should be committed separately.  Then I'll
git commit everything else, and go back and test, like so:

git checkout master
[hack hack..]
git add -p
git commit
git commit -a
[test..]
git checkout master^
[test..]
git checkout master

See? All tested.  If I find a problem during testing, I'll probably
commit it and then rebase master off my new commit, fixing any
conflicts I just introduced.

Frankly I hardly even use the stash; since history can be edited, I
feel like commits are all I need when working with git.  Anything I do
doesn't matter until I push to public anyways.  So it's up to me to
make sure I test everything before pushing, but otherwise I'm very
happy with the ability to commit half-baked ideas and then go back to
make sure they are usable (and tested!) before pushing.  This is what
local branches are for, isn't it?


Steve