There are a number of open pull requests that aim to extend Spark’s automated style checks (see https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-3849 for an umbrella JIRA). These fixes are mostly good, but I have some concerns about merging these patches. Several of these patches make large reformatting changes in nearly every file of Spark, which makes it more difficult to use `git blame` and has the potential to introduce merge conflicts with all open PRs and all backport patches.
I feel that most of the value of automated style-checks comes from allowing reviewers/committers to focus on the technical content of pull requests rather than their formatting. My concern is that the convenience added by these new style rules will not outweigh the other overheads that these reformatting patches will create for the committers. If possible, it would be great if we could extend the style checker to enforce the more stringent rules only for new code additions / deletions. If not, I don’t think that we should proceed with the reformatting. Others might disagree, though, so I welcome comments / discussion. - Josh
