Subject: Re: On-branch topic description support?

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2022 11:02:26 -0700

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]> writes:

> But this is worse in that "git rebase" will get rid of it by default.

FWIW, I think I like this much better than Konstantin's "there is an
empty commit at the bottom", for exactly the same reason why I like
the original "empty commit at the tip", i.e. simply because we can
strip away the "extra" commit that holds the topic description
without having to change all the "real" commits.

In fact, I thought one of the newer "b4" subcommands that is used to
accept a patch series with a cover letter creates exactly this sort
of topology, when told to apply the topic to the tip of the
integration branch?  I do prefer to see a tool that it can use the
same "format" of data for both input and output, and I think your
"there is a redundant merge commit at the tip, with topic
description" topology can be that input format, which would be
recreated at the receiving end if the receiver happens to have the
same base when applying it and the final integration branch was also
at the same base.