Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 2/3] rebase: deprecate --rebase-merges=""

From: Glen Choo <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:46:00 -0800

Alex Henrie <[email-masked]> writes:

> The unusual syntax --rebase-merges="" (that is, --rebase-merges with an
> empty string argument) has been an undocumented synonym of
> --rebase-merges=no-rebase-cousins.

[...]

>  	if (rebase_merges) {
>  		if (!*rebase_merges)
> -			; /* default mode; do nothing */
> +			warning(_("--rebase-merges with an empty string "
> +				  "argument is deprecated and will stop "
> +				  "working in a future version of Git. Use "
> +				  "--rebase-merges=no-rebase-cousins "
> +				  "instead."));
>  		else if (!strcmp("rebase-cousins", rebase_merges))
>  			options.rebase_cousins = 1;
>  		else if (strcmp("no-rebase-cousins", rebase_merges))

As I mentioned in my review of patch 3/3, I think we might be better
served by saying that --rebase-merges="" is a synonym of --rebase-merges
(aka give me a sane default) instead of giving a specific value like
"no-rebase-cousins". This would be give us leeway to change the default
behavior in the future.