Sergey Organov <sorganov@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > The last time '-m' issue appeared on the list, it all started here: > > https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAMMLpeR-W35Qq6a343ifrxJ=mwBc_VcXZtVrBYDpJTySNBroFw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ > > In particular, the final patch and its revert is deeper down this tread: > > https://lore.kernel.org/git/20210520214703.27323-11-sorganov@xxxxxxxxx/#t > > and > > https://lore.kernel.org/git/YQyUM2uZdFBX8G0r@xxxxxxxxxx/ Thanks, these provide extremely helpful context :) In particular: - Junio describes this "do nothing unless -p" is given behavior as an accident [1]. - Jonathan Nieder notes that this change accidentally broke scripts where "-m" probably wasn't doing anything useful, but we wanted to avoid breaking the scripts for backwards compatibility anyway [2]. I got the sense that the closest thing to an intentional use case of "-m" is for users who thought that "-m" would affect path limiting [3], although it doesn't actually do that. So what I've reads so far suggests that "do nothing unless -p" (aka --diff-merges=hide) is not actually useful, and we should just drop it. We could keep the warning for "-m" without "-p" (Patch 5), and recommend "--diff-merges=(on|m)". [1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqwnsl93m3.fsf@gitster.g/ [2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/YQtYEftByY8cNMml@xxxxxxxxxx/ [3] https://lore.kernel.org/git/YQyUM2uZdFBX8G0r@xxxxxxxxxx/ > > Where do you prefer these references to be put, in the cover letter, in > the commit message, or in both places? > > -- Sergey Organov
