vague scribbles about how to make git easier to use

git redesign.md

Git redesign

• all repos start with a blank initial commit, no more "does not have any commits yet" errors

• git commit foo should just work for new files, no more making people run git add first lol

• no fucking perl scripts lmfao

  • better perf
  • git on windows is less horrifically cursed

• all the defaults should be different

  • autostash
  • diff3
  • manyfiles
  • color-moved

• add an "undo" command that works for arbitrary git commands

  • e.g. delete a pushed branch, undo a merge, undo a commit/amend/rebase

• paths fall back to the repo root if they can't be resolved relative to CWD

• submodules and subtrees are the same thing

  • not checking out submodules is off by default (configurable on per-repo basis)
    • this replaces git LFS too
  • commands in the submodule work from anywhere in the repo
  • changes don't have to be upstreamed before being committed
  • worktrees don't reclone the same repos
  • don't have to fetch the full history of the submodule
  • no "dirty submodules" lmao what a fucking terrible idea

• don't use merge workflows so I don't have strong opinions there but merge commits should show the changes you made when resolving conflicts (!!)

• give a warning before committing merge markers

• add a way to get back the original git diff at the start of a conflict that doesn't completely disappear as soon as you run git add/commit/reset lmao

• rebasing needs to completely be redesigned

  • don't touch things on disk unless absolutely necessary to solve merge conflicts or do a final checkout
  • don't reverse "your changes" and "upstream changes" in conflict markers lmfao
  • don't make --interactive a completely separate backend lmfao
    • --edit-todo and --autosquash should work even in non-interactive mode
  • keep a record of the changes made instead of silently discarding them
    • this is mostly just range-diff see the section below
  • branches should remember which commit they branched from
  • file renames should remember the original file. no more percentages lmao what a concept
  • use merge-base origin/HEAD HEAD as the default root

• allow editing individual commits without needing to do a full interactive rebase

  • yes this includes metadata
  • no more "fixup" lmfao just edit the actual commit

• absolute URLs work anywhere without needing to add a remote first

• remotes are automatically deduplicated

  • adding an existing URL just adds an alias
  • adding a new url that points to the same repo (e.g. HTTP vs SSH) checks somehow if they're the same and uses the same local cache if so

• add a version of stash that appends to a branch instead of a random number (https://discord.com/channels/414933673545039883/712061415686406144/980885457980231700)

• better names

  • aliases for all the old names

• better error messages and help