On Fri, May 16, 2025 at 4:16 AM Volker Krause <vkra...@kde.org> wrote:
> On Donnerstag, 15. Mai 2025 16:55:01 Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit Felix > Ernst > wrote: > > Gitlab allows squashing commits while merging. I suggest to have the > > checkbox for this ticked by default. Contributors would still be able to > > untick it as they see fit. > > > > I think "encouraging squashing" is the better default because Gitlab has > > features like the "Apply suggestion" button which produces > non-descriptive > > commits by default. Furthermore especially new contributors might not > > manage the commit history in their merge requests. When it finally comes > to > > merging, the merging person might forget to tick that checkbox, or they > > might have only recently been upgraded to a KDE developer account and not > > know if they should tick this non-default setting, which will then lead > to > > a bunch of misleading/confusing/useless commits making their way to the > > commit history of the master branch. Even project maintainers are unable > to > > rectify this then. > It is possible for you - as the reviewer or MR author - to customise the message when applying suggestions (as well as batch them up into one commit) > > > > The way to change this default is described in > > > https://invent.kde.org/help/user/project/merge_requests/squash_and_merge.md > > #configure-squash-options-for-a-project. However, this setting is > controlled > > exclusively by KDE system administrators. In a short discussion with Ben > > Cooksley he quite reasonably suggested: "I'm afraid we need a universal > > consistent approach across our repositories, otherwise it will cause > issues > > where people get surprised by different behaviour. I'd suggest starting a > > thread regarding the behaviour change to see what the general consensus > > is." > > (https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/merge_requests/895#note_1131215 > ) > > So this is what I am now doing here. > > > > So, does anyone mind if we change "Squash commits when merging" to > > "Encourage"? > > ( > https://invent.kde.org/help/user/project/merge_requests/squash_and_merge.m > > d#configure-squash-options-for-a-project) > > Accidentally not squashing is far less destructive than accidentally > squashing > commits that should not have been squashed, and IME the latter is the more > common case, ie. most MRs I review have a sensible history that should be > preserved. > > I'd be totally ok with being forced to explicitly make a decision each > time > (not sure Gitlab has that option though), but having such a (potentially) > destructive option enabled by default is IMHO way too risky. > I'm afraid it does not have that capability. > > Regards, > Volker > Cheers, Ben
