From: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2018 15:27:19 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: git-debrebase: explain why breakwater bases must be merges
X-Git-Tag: archive/debian/5.0~256
X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=dgit.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=16bb4f404fe0c9816719adce36b15daaac5dc451;ds=sidebyside

git-debrebase: explain why breakwater bases must be merges

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
---

diff --git a/NOTES.git-debrebase b/NOTES.git-debrebase
index 635f72bb..95ad453e 100644
--- a/NOTES.git-debrebase
+++ b/NOTES.git-debrebase
@@ -47,6 +47,18 @@ overall format
 
 m{^\[git-debrebase (?:\w*-)?upstream combine \.((?: $extra_orig_namepart_re)+)\]}
 
+Every breakwater commit must be a merge.  In principle, this is not
+necessary.  After all, we are relying on the
+    [git-debrebase breakwater: ...]
+commit message annotation in "declare" breakwater merges (which
+do not have any upstream changes), to distinguish those breakwater
+merges from ordinary pseudomerges (which we might just try to strip).
+
+However, the user is going to be doing git-rebase a lot.  We really
+don't want them to rewrite a breakwater base commit.  git-rebase
+trips up on merges, so that is a useful safety catch.
+
+
 =========
 
 workflow