git rebase patch does not have a valid email address

Near the end of a coding session, my `git diff` often shows three or four completely unrelated sets of changes. Not having to switch branches can be convenient in that case. Others prefer to work their way through a piece of code for example from top to bottom, making opportunistic edits along the way, even if unrelated to the task. Some people prefer to focus on one topic at a time, have their current branch open, and choose not to give in to opportunistic edits if unrelated to the task at hand. I’d say that highly depends on your habits and how your brain works. Finally, the patches can be committed when the series of features are complete. It's even possible to edit or reorder these patches as we progress. That way, you can develop code hunks in whatever order that makes sense, and then check them into (refresh the patch) the appropriate patch.

I treat a stack of patches as multiple staging areas - each with specific purpose/feature and a predefined commit message. With StGit, you can craft the ideal commit history along the way while you develop. I assume that this is the reason why StGit operations make more sense than rebasing.Īnother important fact is that you don't need to wait till a feature-branch is complete to edit the history. With StGit, it's explicitly just patches that you can inspect anytime. There is always a conflict of the two mental models while rebasing. Rebases and merges use diffs behind the scenes, although git stores the commits as snapshots. It's easier for me to track down rebase conflicts that way. Personally, I find rebase operations so confusing that I often do multiple rebases on the same branch, a few operations at a time.

Conflicts are much easier to track down and resolve compared to rebases.

In practice, StGit operations are much more intuitive and easy to learn than rebasing. I tried StGit recently, having used rebases for a while now.

Git rebase patch does not have a valid email address