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Comment by Benjamin_Dobell | Hacker News Reader

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Benjamin_Dobell

Would it not be significantly more frustrating if you use git blame and you see:

> Revert: Some WIP didn't work out.

Git blame again from prior to that commit.

> Added missing semicolon.

and again:

> Fixed spelling.

and again:

> Stupid typo, wrong method call.

and again:

> WIP, going to see if X can work.

Before running git blame once more, finally getting to the commit message that actually pertains to the current line of code you're seeing. Including the explanation (commit message) for why it is the way it is, and very importantly when this line of code actually made it into the software?

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I would prefer not to have these errors in the first place. They should be caught during review, and then fixed in the commits that introduced them with an interactive rebase. If this type of error is consistently getting through your review process, you should probably consider revising that process.

...and maybe consider adopting atomic commits -- the main reason I like them is not actually because they make it easy to look at history, but because they're easy to review and catch these types of errors. If each commit stands on its own, it's obvious when one doesn't.

> Would it not be significantly more frustrating if you use git blame and you see: [...]

Yes, it would be very frustrating. But you're presenting this as if this is the only alternative, it isn't: I wouldn't approve a pull-request that have commits like the one you mention, I would ask to rework the history of the PR to be a logically sequence, just like exposed in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19007171

"I think each of your commits should be individually rewritten until each commit makes sense and tells a single, indivudal story that makes sense on its own, while at the same time be completely atomic and as small as possible."

fwiw this is largely what `git log -L` (and maybe `--follow`) solves. You can log changes to a file or lines in the file and have it follow through moves.

Granted, most tools don't make that easy to do. But most Git tools are rather blind mimics of simple CLI commands with a nice UI (which can be a huge help), rather than being value-adds in terms of behavior or understanding.

Can you explain this a bit more?

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