On Mon, Jul 01, 2013 at 08:38:21AM -0700, Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> As to "--no-ff" vs "--ff-only", "--ff-only" has always meant "only
> fast-forward updates are allowed. We do not want to create a merge
> commit with this operation." I do agree with you that the proposed
> patch changes the established semantis and may be too disruptive a
> thing to do at this point.
Hmm, one way around this may be to add a new option that is basically
the same as --no-ff --ff-only (with the patch), except it has a
different name, so it's not confusing. 'git merge --rebase' could be
used for this, but such a name is misleading as well. Anyone has a
better naming idea? :-)
> If one were designing Git merge from scratch today, however, I could
> see one may have designed these as two orthogonal switches.
>
> - Precondition on the shape of histories being merged ("fail unless
> fast forward" does not have to be the only criteria);
>
> - How the update is done ("fast forward to the other head", "always
> create a merge", "fast forward if possible, otherwise merge" do
> not have to be the only three choices).
>
> I do not fundamentally oppose to such a new feature, but they have
> to interact sanely with the current "--ff={only,only,never}".
OK, so if I get it right, the problem is that users got used to that
the --ff-only not only means a precondition for the merge, but also
means "either don't create a merge commit or fail", while my patch would
change this second behaviour.
I could imagine then new switches, like 'git merge --pre=ff
--update=no-ff" could provide these, though I'm not sure if it makes
sense to add such generic switches till the only user is "ff".
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