Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jul 05 2021, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>
> > Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > builtin/merge.c | 2 +-
> > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/builtin/merge.c b/builtin/merge.c
> > index a8a843b1f5..05e631229d 100644
> > --- a/builtin/merge.c
> > +++ b/builtin/merge.c
> > @@ -1620,7 +1620,7 @@ int cmd_merge(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
> > }
> >
> > if (fast_forward == FF_ONLY)
> > - die(_("Not possible to fast-forward, aborting."));
> > + die(_("unable to fast-forward"));
>
> I read the existing message a bit more like "this makes no sense
> anymore" (correct) and the latter more like "we encountered an
> error".
I mean, this is the documentation of --ff-only:
With `--ff-only`, resolve the merge as a fast-forward when possible.
When not possible, refuse to merge and exit with a non-zero status.
So if you do `git merge --ff-only` you are telling git: "I want you to
exit with an error when the fast-forward is not possible".
If you do:
% git merge --ff-only
fatal: Not possible to fast-forward, aborting.
That "aborting" part is redundant; we know `git merge` should abort if
the fast-forward is not possible, we explicitely told git to do that.
Moreover the "fatal: " prefix also indicates that git aborted.
Then you have "Not possible to fast-forward", which if memory serves
well should be in lowercase (altghough can't find that in the
guidelines).
"unable to fast-forward" is simply a more succinct way of saying
"not possible to fast-forward". Sure, we are not explaining why,
although I can't think of any other reason why we could not fast-forward.
> Perhaps something like:
>
> "Can't merge X with Y, in --ff-only mode, would need to create a merge commit", tip_name
I don't think die() messages should be that big, how about?
branches diverged, can't fast-forward
--
Felipe Contreras
