I/we need a lesson in git and/or gitlab and/or merge requests

[James Browning]

Hal Murray wrote:
>
> Merge requests seem reasonable if all goes well.  My work flow is roughly:
>   download the patch  (URL plus ".patch")
>   scan it
>   maybe apply and test
>   approve and merge

Ah, my work turbulence is incompatible with your workflow.

> But things go downhill if I don't like something.  What I get from James is an 
> update to the MR, a patch to the patch.  That makes reading/checking the patch 
> harder and clutters up the git log.
> 
> What if I don't like the description of a patch?
> 
> Merge has an option to reduce all the patches to one.  But often that isn't 
> appropriate.

"git rebase -i" allows you to selectively drop, reorder, squash,
and/or amend commits.  At least, that is what I have heard.  I use
GUI tools.

> git works so well for most things.  I think I/we are missing something in the 
> workflow.

Reasonable communication, etiquette, and politics on my part?

> Should we be throwing away merges and making new ones rather than patching 
> them?

Yes, if it works better than my work-turbulence not working with
your workflow.  We will not run out of integers.

> How do I backup a bunch of commits that turned into a MR so I can make them 
> better and try again?
>
> I'm on a list or two where patches are distributed via email.  git has several 
> commands for that.  Iterations usually have a v1 v2 ... as part of the 
> Subject.  Often individual parts will be approved.  It's a lof of clutter in 
> the email stream but the discussion gets archived in email rather than hidden 
> over in a MR.
> 
> Is there a way in gitlab to approve only one of the patches rather than all of 
> them?  I think I could do that by downloading the patch which is several email 
> messages, editing out the one I want...  Again, if that was the right thing to 
> be doing, I'd expect git to support it which it probably does if you use their 
> email mode.

I am unaware of many things, including any potential means of
cherry-picking any particular commits via GitLab.  Offline, I might
try the following.

$ git checkout origin/master
$ git am ${path_to_mr_patches}
$ git format-patch ${number_of_commits}
$ git checkout origin/master
$ $EDITOR ${specific_patch_file}
$ git am ${specific_patch_file}

Should I return to throwing patches at people and see what gets
picked up?

-30-