I ask you all to do the following: git config --global pull.rebase true
Perhaps you have already set it as such (this retrieves the current setting, possibly a default): git config pull.rebase -> true *What*: As the setting implies, this has to do with what happens on a "pull", but in practice it shows up in a typical workflow on a "push" because some "pushes" need to "pull". When pushes do a pull, it's because the remote branch (e.g. master or branch_8x) has advanced beyond the point that you had committed from. Git will either (A) generate a merge commit between the latest head and your commit (the default behavior) generating a bifurcation in the history, or (b) it will rebase your commit(s) on top of the new head (what I propose) thus producing a linear history. In either case, there may be a conflict which you'll have to resolve. *Why?*: To make our history easier to understand as seen via "git log" and in our IDEs and online. I don't know about you all, but I find those visual branch bifurcations to be a distracting annoyance that is more obfuscating than linear history. I don't think that merge commits are altogether bad, I'd just prefer that they happen in exceptional circumstances instead of common ones. *Why not?:* In full disclosure, I'm aware this is one of those debates like tabs vs spaces. Some will argue that the merge commit is a better reflection of the reality of what happened. While I agree, it has an obfuscation cost on everyone looking at the history. I think it _sometimes_ makes sense for a merge commit, like maybe if the branch was a long lived big feature. The setting I propose does not prevent someone from deliberately choosing a merge commit when they consciously want one, it's aimed at the common scenario during a push. If I can get broad agreement here, I can update https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/LUCENE/Commit+Process+Guidelines#CommitProcessGuidelines-LinearHistoryinGit to recommend the setting above and remove the [PENDING DISCUSSION]. Thankfully, this appears to occur only rarely. It happened today on branch_8x (I'm looking at you Eric Pugh :-) and a worse one there September 29th by Noble. I say "worse" because the branch bifurcation was 2 weeks long for that one. ~ David Smiley Apache Lucene/Solr Search Developer http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwsmiley
