Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] builtin/history: sign rewritten commits

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Fri, Jul 17, 2026 at 02:51:42PM +0000, Souma wrote:
> The history commands create replacement commits directly instead of
> using the sequencer or the commit porcelain. As a result, rewritten
> commits ignore `commit.gpgSign` and cannot be signed on demand.
> 
> Read the signing configuration before parsing options so that it
> establishes the default and later `-S`/`--gpg-sign` or `--no-gpg-sign`
> options override it. Pass the selected key through direct rewrites and
> the replay machinery.
> 
> Sign every newly created commit, including both halves of a split and
> replayed descendants. Dropping the tip creates no replacement commit,
> so there is nothing to sign.

Nit: this sentence doesn't really add much value, I think, as it just
covers a small edge case. It might even briefly derail the reader as
they might wonder whether we ever have to sign with the "drop"
subcommand.

> As with `rebase --gpg-sign`, the signature
> records the attestation of the current committer to the rewritten
> commit while retaining the original author identity; it does not claim
> authorship of commits written by somebody else.
> 
> Document the behavior and add GPG-gated coverage for configuration,
> command-line overrides, last-option-wins precedence, replayed
> descendants, split commits, an explicit signing key, and the
> no-new-commit drop case.

This paragraph doesn't add much value and can be dropped entirely.

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-history.adoc b/Documentation/git-history.adoc
> index 28b477cd37..8345cced4c 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-history.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-history.adoc
> @@ -125,6 +125,14 @@ OPTIONS
>  `--reedit-message`::
>  	Open an editor to modify the target commit's message.
>  
> +`-S[<key-id>]`::
> +`--gpg-sign[=<key-id>]`::
> +`--no-gpg-sign`::
> +	GPG-sign rewritten commits. The _<key-id>_ argument is optional and
> +	defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be stuck to
> +	the option without a space. `--no-gpg-sign` is useful to countermand
> +	both `commit.gpgSign` configuration and earlier `--gpg-sign`.
> +
>  `--empty=(drop|keep|abort)`::
>  	Control what happens when a commit becomes empty as a result of the
>  	fixup. This can happen in two situations:

This matches what we have in git-rebase(1). Good.

> diff --git a/builtin/history.c b/builtin/history.c
> index d28c1f08bb..97e0d77013 100644
> --- a/builtin/history.c
> +++ b/builtin/history.c
> @@ -105,12 +105,37 @@ enum commit_tree_flags {
>  	COMMIT_TREE_EDIT_MESSAGE = (1 << 0),
>  };
>  
> +static int history_config(const char *var, const char *value,
> +			  const struct config_context *ctx, void *data)
> +{
> +	const char **sign_commit = data;
> +
> +	if (!strcmp(var, "commit.gpgsign")) {
> +		*sign_commit = git_config_bool(var, value) ? "" : NULL;
> +		return 0;
> +	}
> +
> +	return git_default_config(var, value, ctx, NULL);
> +}
> +
> +#define OPT_HISTORY_GPG_SIGN(v) {                 \
> +	.type = OPTION_STRING,                    \
> +	.short_name = 'S',                        \
> +	.long_name = "gpg-sign",                  \
> +	.value = (v),                             \
> +	.argh = N_("key-id"),                     \
> +	.help = N_("GPG-sign rewritten commits"), \
> +	.flags = PARSE_OPT_OPTARG,                \
> +	.defval = (intptr_t)"",                   \
> +}

Style: we don't align the `\` character.

Patrick