Proposal: Encourage squashing commits when merging

[Ben Cooksley]

On Fri, May 16, 2025 at 4:16 AM Volker Krause <vkrause at 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
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