Re: [RFC/PATCH] mergetool: clarify local/remote terminology

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 09:31:03AM -0500, Jay Soffian wrote:

> Anyone?
> 
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 12:12 AM, Jay Soffian <jaysoffian@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Always calling the thing on the left-side of a merge "local" and on the
> >  right side "remote" isn't correct. You could be rebasing, in which case
> >  the left side is the new base/upstream and the right side is the saved
> >  commits which are being re-applied. So,

I have been annoyed by this in the past, too. And I think your change is
probably an improvement (though I haven't tried it yet). As a user, what
I would _really_ like to see, though, is simply the branch names:
"origin/next" versus "next". I looked at using the GITHEAD_* mechanism
in the past, but that relies on the environment, which can't get
directly to mergetool. See this thread:

http://mid.gmane.org/20070820075318.GA12478@coredump.intra.peff.net

I think the right thing to do is the oft-discussed-but-never-implemented
"what's happening right now" file/command that would say:

  1. there's a rebase happening now
  2. the upstream branch is X
  3. the rebased branch is Y

but that could also of course say

  1. there's a merge happening now
  2. the first parent is X
  3. the second parent is Y

and so on (including "we're in a git-am, git-cherry-pick, etc").

I'll try out your patch and comment next time I use it.

-Peff