Re: pull.rebase config vs. --ff-only on command line

From: Matthias Baumgarten <matthias.baumgarten@aixigo.com>
To: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>,
	Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Cc: "git@vger.kernel.org" <git@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: pull.rebase config vs. --ff-only on command line
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2021 16:26:29 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <fa757764-db25-849d-d8d5-e28908059f6b@aixigo.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <60f1c9378d5a1_3302085c@natae.notmuch>

On 7/16/21 8:00 PM, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> Matthias Baumgarten wrote:
>> On 7/16/21 6:44 PM, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>>> Elijah Newren wrote:
>>>> On Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 7:52 AM Matthias Baumgarten
>>>> <matthias.baumgarten@aixigo.com> wrote:
>>>>> this is my first time contacting you guys and girls so I hope this mail
>>>>> achieves the expected standard. I've discovered the following behaviour
>>>>> of git:
>>>>>
>>>>> If pull.rebase is configured to true and git pull --ff-only is executed
>>>>> it seems like the config wins, i.e. issuing "Successfully rebased and
>>>>> updated refs/heads/...", which is not what I would expect. I always
>>>>> believed that command line options would overwrite configured options.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is my assumption that command line options always win wrong or is this a
>>>>> bug?
>>>>
>>>> It's a bug.
>>>
>>> No it isn't.
>>>
>>> Elijah is elevating to fact his opinion of what --ff-only should be
>>> changed to.
>>>
>>> But it has not been changed. Today --ff-only is meant only for the merge
>>> mode of `git pull`, and like other merge-only options (e.g. --ff,
>>> --no-ff, and --squash) it's ignored in the rebase mode.
>>
>> Shouldn't every explicitly given merge option (like --ff-only) overwrite
>> any configured option that would not even result in a merge, i.e.
>> forcing a merge and thus forcing ff-only?
> 
> Perhaps. Other developers have suggested that before.
> 
> The problem is that everyone wants to make --ff-only the default, and
> then we start to get into a tricky situation, because what should these
> do:
> 
>    git -c pull.ff=only pull
>    git -c pull.ff=only pull --merge
>    git -c pull.ff=only pull --rebase

If my assumption were true, and every explicit (cli given) option would 
overwrite implicitly given ones (i.e. configured options), wouldn't

  * git -c pull.ff=only pull, do a fast-forward (or merge)
  * git -c pull.ff=only pull --merge, force a merge commit
  * git -c pull.ff=only pull --rebase, force rebase

> 
> One of these will always fail, when it shouldn'tWould this even apply under the above assumption?
> 
> I proposed a solution for that, but is has been ignored.
I'm sorry!
> 

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