Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/8] Debug merge-recursive.[ch]

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2025 20:09:57 +0000

"Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]> writes:

> This series does some preparation, then moves the code shared between
> merge-recursive and merge-ort from the former to the latter, and then debugs
> the remainder of merge-recursive.[ch].

Help unconfusing me.  When we have bugs in our code, the action we
take consists of two parts, i.e. first we find them, and then we fix
them.  To me, the verb "debug" refers only to the earlier half, and
never the latter.

But the code in the later part of this series is not only to find or
expose existing bugs, but also fixing them, right?

I've already named the topic with "debug" in its name while queuing
the original iteration of this series, as I was on vacation and did
not want to spend more than minimum braincycles on naming, but now I
am back, I sense that the use of the word, and the proposed log
message for 6/8, are overly suboptimal.  If you are referring to
fixing remaining bugs, "Debug the remainder of merge-recursive.[ch]"
is not how we usually describe our fixes.

I suspect that the overall sentiment behind this series is ...

        Such and such bugs existed in the older backend, but now the
        newer backend is used when the older one is asked, and the
        newer backend does not share these bugs, we can simply
        remove the buggy code specific to the older backend.

... but I find it somewhat disturbing to stay totally silent about
"such and such bugs existed" part.

Thanks.