Re: Editing the root commit

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Webb <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>> I think the only thing you can do is make a fake sentinel commit (with
>> an empty tree) to put in HEAD, and then remove the sentinel immediately
>> after the first commit is put in place (making sure not to include it in
>> the first commit's parent list). Yuck.
>
> If I do this:
>
> diff --git a/path.c b/path.c
> index 6f2aa69..1b3b6f3 100644
> --- a/path.c
> +++ b/path.c
> @@ -169,8 +169,9 @@ int validate_headref(const char *path)
>  	int fd;
>  	ssize_t len;
>  
> +	/* Allow HEAD to be entirely missing for detached orphan state */
>  	if (lstat(path, &st) < 0)
> -		return -1;
> +		return errno == ENOENT ? 0 : -1;
>  
>  	/* Make sure it is a "refs/.." symlink */
>  	if (S_ISLNK(st.st_mode)) {
>
>
> to thwart the sanity check, I can do 'rm $GIT_DIR/HEAD' to put my HEAD into a
> state where it is both detached and unborn, i.e. so that my next commit will
> result in a detached HEAD pointing at a root commit.

No thanks.  It will be too big a change to the fundamental invariant
for what a git directory is (and isn't).  It is simply unacceptable
to suddenly start treating a random directory that does not even
have HEAD as a git directory.

It would be a lot more palatable approach to teach "rebase -i" defer
its "detaching HEAD to the onto commit" step before starting to read
the insn sheet.  Would such a change be too involved for it to be
worth supporting "rebase --root -i"?
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