"svn commit" should always prompt after popping up a log message editor

PREAMBLE:

I don't like Subversion to pop up an editor inside a "commit" command. At least not by default. It feels wrong to do an arbitrary amount of work (writing, diffing, perhaps editing and re-compiling and testing) inside a command that is conceptually atomic. Yes, it depends on whether you feel you are "inside" the commit, but I do feel like that.

Usually when I start to write the log message, I realise that something is not quite right and need to go back and fix it. You can't safely and easily do this from within "svn commit". That is, you can save your mostly-written log message in a different file, then delete the content of the original log message file, exit from the editor and have Subversion prompt you whether to continue the commit. But are you sure that your editor's idea of "empty" matches Subversion's idea of "empty" (some editors insist on leaving an end-of-line in the file)? What is the chance that you start editing some other files, then save-and-exit from the editor, forgetting that you were editing the log message? Too many chances to accidentally commit the wrong thing.

BUT I realise that this feature is useful for some users - perhaps particularly those who just want to write a short, informal log message.

PROPOSAL:

I think the main problem is the danger of having the commit proceed when you are not ready for it, and the difficulty of postponing it while still saving your partly-written log message.

To these ends, I suggest that Subversion should always prompt after the editor exits. Perhaps it changes the wording of the prompt, or the default response, depending on the content of the log message, but it should always give the choice of proceeding or aborting.

Thoughts?

- Julian

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@subversion.tigris.org
Received on Thu Sep 25 13:41:04 2003