git problems: >78 column commit message created by git revert. I'm stuck. What do I do?

git problems: >78 column commit message created by git revert. I'm stuck. What do I do?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Emacs.

Yet another git problem.

I did git revert -e <hash-1> <hash-2>, committing the results to my
local git repository.

I then did git pull --rebase.  This failed with the message "Line longer
than 78 characters in commit message".  The revert operation created log
messages with very long lines.  :-(

Then, following the suggestion in the error message, I did git rebase
--abort, to get back to a stable state.

However, I now have two unrebaseable commits in my repo, and it seems
likely the savannah server would reject them anyway.

I'd like to use git commit --amend, but this can only change one of the
two commit messages created by git revert.

How can I resolve this mess?

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Re: git problems: >78 column commit message created by git revert. I'm stuck. What do I do?

[Stefan Monnier]

> I then did git pull --rebase.  This failed with the message "Line longer
> than 78 characters in commit message".  The revert operation created log
> messages with very long lines.  :-(

When you `git commit` you can skip the "78 char" check with `--no-verify`,
but indeed, I can't see how to do the equivalent within `git
pull --rebase` or `git rebase` (at least according to the manpage: `git
rebase` has a `--no-verify` option as well, so maybe that will work,
but the doc says it only affects the use of .git/hooks/pre-rebase).

You can rm .git/hooks/commit-msg, tho.

Also you can `git pull` without the `--rebase`.

> However, I now have two unrebaseable commits in my repo, and it seems
> likely the savannah server would reject them anyway.

Those checks are only performed locally: the savannah server will
happily accept commits that don't abide by those rules.


        Stefan

Re: git problems: >78 column commit message created by git revert. I'm stuck. What do I do?

[Noam Postavsky]

On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 at 08:56, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:

> I'd like to use git commit --amend, but this can only change one of the
> two commit messages created by git revert.
>
> How can I resolve this mess?

For the record, you can change the messages of multiple previous
commits using rebase:

git rebase --interactive HEAD~2

This will pop up your $EDITOR. Change the occurrences of "pick" into
"reword", then save and exit. You will then be able to edit each
commit message in turn (again, in $EDITOR).

Re: git problems: >78 column commit message created by git revert. I'm stuck. What do I do?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Noam.

On Wed, Oct 03, 2018 at 19:41:17 -0400, Noam Postavsky wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 at 08:56, Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:

> > I'd like to use git commit --amend, but this can only change one of the
> > two commit messages created by git revert.
> >
> > How can I resolve this mess?

> For the record, you can change the messages of multiple previous
> commits using rebase:

> git rebase --interactive HEAD~2

> This will pop up your $EDITOR. Change the occurrences of "pick" into
> "reword", then save and exit. You will then be able to edit each
> commit message in turn (again, in $EDITOR).

Thanks.  I'll have a look at that sometime.  I actually fixed the
immediate problem with Stefan's suggestion, temporarily removing the git
hook.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).