bug#41604: guix pull impossible after rebasing a local repository

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

John Soo <jsoo1@asu.edu> writes:

> I guess that makes me wonder what the desired specification is.
> There is a lot of problem space to explore.  As a user I would want to
> be able to take my local patches as "the real truth".
>
> Because guix has a linear git history, that means the user needs to
> always rebase.  Often I have patches open for months that I am currently
> testing and working on. It would be convenient for me to be able to guix
> pull into my default user profile.
>
> On the other hand, as you point out, using a hash that disappears from
> the git history is dangerous. The git history no longer tracks the guix
> pull history and then there may exist pulls in history that may never be
> recoverable.
>
> There seems to be some existing support for the rebasing into the
> default profile since branches are allowed as references in the channels
> configuration. Has the rebase use case been discussed before? Oh, also,
> history items can be deleted in other places with --delete-generations
> and friends.  I am not sure what to classify this problem, bug or
> something else.
>
> What do you think?

This sounds like a use-case for changeset evolution with
hidden-but-retrievable commits:
https://www.mercurial-scm.org/doc/evolution/index.html

With that you can rebase and have linear surface history, but the
rewritten commits still exist as hidden commits with references to the
commits that superseded them.

Problem: It not possible with Git. It would require switching to
Mercurial — which would also enable useful abilities like coordinated
rebasing in a group: https://blog.disy.net/hg-evolution/
(and which is GPLv3-compatible)

Best wishes,
Arne
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