>> You absolutely _did_ rewrite history ... not just once, but twice!
>> You deleted an _entire branch_ of published development history,
>> then after my subsequent push had reinstated it, you deleted it
>> once again! If that isn't rewriting history, then I'd like to know
>> what you would call it. [...]
Keith, what Brandon does it *exactly* what is common if you use the
GUI of gitlab, github, and other such sites.
* If you want something added to the repository, you create a PR (push
request, github terminology) or a MR (merge request, gitlab
terminology). This essentially sets up a new, temporary git branch
that holds your submission.
* You do `git push -f` again and again until this branch is in good
shape, i.e., the commit messages are OK, the reviewers are
satisfied, etc., etc.
* Finally, you press the `Merge` button, which merges the branch and
by default also deletes this temporary git branch – such branches
are normally not meant to be retained. Depending on the project,
this might also squash all commits of the branch into a single
commit before merging.
The groff git repository (or rather, the Savannah infrastructure)
precedes this 'modern' way of git repository management. It simply
doesn't support such a GUI approach.
My suggestion is that if you want to have a branch retained (for
whatever reason), you should announce this on this list – and Brandon
should have asked before deleting branches :-)
This is true for all users who have opened a branch for groff! An
additional means might be if people add a `-dont-remove` suffix or
something similar to the branch name.
Werner
