[PATCH 1/2] Change default merge backend from recursive to ort

["Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>]

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

There are a few reasons to switch the default:
  * Correctness
  * Extensibility
  * Performance

I'll provide some summaries about each.

=== Correctness ===

The original impetus for a new merge backend was to fix issues that were
difficult to fix within recursive's design.  The success with this goal
is perhaps most easily demonstrated by running the following:

  $ git grep -2 KNOWN_FAILURE t/ | grep -A 4 GIT_TEST_MERGE_ALGORITHM
  $ git grep test_expect_merge_algorithm.failure.success t/
  $ git grep test_expect_merge_algorithm.success.failure t/

In order, these greps show:

  * Seven sets of submodule tests (10 total tests) that fail with
    recursive but succeed with ort
  * 22 other tests that fail with recursive, but succeed with ort
  * 0 tests that pass with recursive, but fail with ort

=== Extensibility ===

Being able to perform merges without touching the working tree or index
makes it possible to create new features that were difficult with the
old backend:

  * Merging, cherry-picking, rebasing, reverting in bare repositories...
    or just on branches that aren't checked out.

  * `git diff AUTO_MERGE` -- ability to see what changes the user has
    made to resolve conflicts so far (see commit 5291828df8 ("merge-ort:
    write $GIT_DIR/AUTO_MERGE whenever we hit a conflict", 2021-03-20)

  * A --remerge-diff option for log/show, used to show diffs for merges
    that display the difference between what an automatic merge would
    have created and what was recorded in the merge.  (This option will
    often result in an empty diff because many merges are clean, but for
    the non-clean ones it will show how conflicts were fixed including
    the removal of conflict markers, and also show additional changes
    made outside of conflict regions to e.g. fix semantic conflicts.)

  * A --remerge-diff-only option for log/show, similar to --remerge-diff
    but also showing how cherry-picks or reverts differed from what an
    automatic cherry-pick or revert would provide.

The last three have been implemented already (though only one has been
submitted upstream so far; the others were waiting for performance work
to complete), and I still plan to implement the first one.

=== Performance ===

I'll quote from the summary of my final optimization for merge-ort
(while fixing the testcase name from 'no-renames' to 'few-renames'):

                               Timings

                                          Infinite
                 merge-       merge-     Parallelism
                recursive    recursive    of rename    merge-ort
                 v2.30.0      current     detection     current
                ----------   ---------   -----------   ---------
few-renames:      18.912 s    18.030 s     11.699 s     198.3 ms
mega-renames:   5964.031 s   361.281 s    203.886 s     661.8 ms
just-one-mega:   149.583 s    11.009 s      7.553 s     264.6 ms

                           Speedup factors

                                          Infinite
                 merge-       merge-     Parallelism
                recursive    recursive    of rename
                 v2.30.0      current     detection    merge-ort
                ----------   ---------   -----------   ---------
few-renames:        1           1.05         1.6           95
mega-renames:       1          16.5         29           9012
just-one-mega:      1          13.6         20            565

And, for partial clone users:

             Factor reduction in number of objects needed

                                          Infinite
                 merge-       merge-     Parallelism
                recursive    recursive    of rename
                 v2.30.0      current     detection    merge-ort
                ----------   ---------   -----------   ---------
mega-renames:       1            1            1          181.3

Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
---
 builtin/merge.c  | 10 ++++++++--
 builtin/rebase.c |  2 +-
 sequencer.c      |  4 ++--
 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/builtin/merge.c b/builtin/merge.c
index d7b14bf4a7f..fbe21d413c1 100644
--- a/builtin/merge.c
+++ b/builtin/merge.c
@@ -88,9 +88,9 @@ static int autostash;
 static int no_verify;
 
 static struct strategy all_strategy[] = {
-	{ "recursive",  DEFAULT_TWOHEAD | NO_TRIVIAL },
+	{ "recursive",  NO_TRIVIAL },
 	{ "octopus",    DEFAULT_OCTOPUS },
-	{ "ort",        NO_TRIVIAL },
+	{ "ort",        DEFAULT_TWOHEAD | NO_TRIVIAL },
 	{ "resolve",    0 },
 	{ "ours",       NO_FAST_FORWARD | NO_TRIVIAL },
 	{ "subtree",    NO_FAST_FORWARD | NO_TRIVIAL },
@@ -1484,6 +1484,12 @@ int cmd_merge(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 			fast_forward = FF_NO;
 	}
 
+	if (!use_strategies && !pull_twohead &&
+	    remoteheads && !remoteheads->next) {
+		char *default_strategy = getenv("GIT_TEST_MERGE_ALGORITHM");
+		if (default_strategy)
+			append_strategy(get_strategy(default_strategy));
+	}
 	if (!use_strategies) {
 		if (!remoteheads)
 			; /* already up-to-date */
diff --git a/builtin/rebase.c b/builtin/rebase.c
index 12f093121d9..587a2f1d299 100644
--- a/builtin/rebase.c
+++ b/builtin/rebase.c
@@ -1713,7 +1713,7 @@ int cmd_rebase(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		int i;
 
 		if (!options.strategy)
-			options.strategy = "recursive";
+			options.strategy = "ort";
 
 		strbuf_reset(&buf);
 		for (i = 0; i < strategy_options.nr; i++)
diff --git a/sequencer.c b/sequencer.c
index a4e5c43fcf2..d08ddae52fa 100644
--- a/sequencer.c
+++ b/sequencer.c
@@ -636,7 +636,7 @@ static int do_recursive_merge(struct repository *r,
 	for (i = 0; i < opts->xopts_nr; i++)
 		parse_merge_opt(&o, opts->xopts[i]);
 
-	if (opts->strategy && !strcmp(opts->strategy, "ort")) {
+	if (!opts->strategy || !strcmp(opts->strategy, "ort")) {
 		memset(&result, 0, sizeof(result));
 		merge_incore_nonrecursive(&o, base_tree, head_tree, next_tree,
 					    &result);
@@ -3988,7 +3988,7 @@ static int do_merge(struct repository *r,
 	o.branch2 = ref_name.buf;
 	o.buffer_output = 2;
 
-	if (opts->strategy && !strcmp(opts->strategy, "ort")) {
+	if (!opts->strategy || !strcmp(opts->strategy, "ort")) {
 		/*
 		 * TODO: Should use merge_incore_recursive() and
 		 * merge_switch_to_result(), skipping the call to
-- 
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