Re: git push precautions

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 12:39:24 +0700
> Cc: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>, ivan@siamics.net, Emacs developers <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> 
> > But that problem no longer exists in current versions of Git.  Why
> > should I punish myself on behalf of Git versions I never used and
> > never will be?  It sounds perverse.
> 
> You cannot assume current Git on all systems, yet.

We are not talking about general population here.  We are talking
about contributors who are actively tracking the Emacs development and
committing changes to the repository.  Those contributors are already
required to use relatively recent versions of the development tools.
There's nothing wrong in assuming a recent enough Git and in
recommending that contributors upgrade to such a recent version.

> You personally can use whatever practice you deem safe and convenient,
> but if we’re talking about generic recommendations, we have to account
> for old Git versions.

The vast majority here has Git that is recent enough.  It is okay to
say in addition "but if you have Git older than X.Y.Z, do this like so
instead".  But giving _only_ such recipes, that are unduly complicated
because they work with the lowest common denominator, means punishing
the majority for the benefit of a tiny, perhaps non-existent minority,
when applied to people for which the issue at hand (pushing to the
Emacs repo) is relevant.  It strikes the wrong balance, IMO.