Re: [GNU-linux-libre] The "Free" Kernel In Debian Squeeze

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Jan  1, 2011, Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

>     I have a devised a much better plan.  It requires changes in git that I
>     believe will be useful to solve the very kind of rebase (and rewrite
>     history) problems that often give git users grief, so I expect it to be
>     welcome (unless my plan is flawed), and it shouldn't be hard to
>     implement.

> Could you tell us more about it?  Those sound like a lot of practical
> advantages, but we should check that it really solves the problem.

My plan is to maintain, within git, the mapping between original and
rebased commit, so that pulls, merges and rebases could tell what has
already been seen and done, rather than attempting to replay commits.

I propose to model them as “weak parents”, akin to weak references: they
link to a parent, but they don't demand the parent to be available, or
keep the parent around, or cause the parent to be transmitted along with
the branch.  If the other party has it, it can be used to improve merges
and rebases; otherwise, it's ignored.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, freedom fighter    http://FSFLA.org/~lxoliva/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi
Be Free! -- http://FSFLA.org/   FSF Latin America board member
Free Software Evangelist      Red Hat Brazil Compiler Engineer