debubble – a tool for popping pointless merge bubbles

If you hate pointless merge bubbles as much as I do, you’ll kick yourself because you didn’t think of this.

But don’t feel bad. I should have, a lot sooner, myself.

Voila! git-debubble.

17 comments

    1. git-rebase only works on a branch that hasn’t been merged yet, or at least that was true last time I checked.

      Also, this thing will linearize any topology downstream of the selected revision – multiple merge bubbles, if they exist.

      And finally, there are safety checks and your original branch is preserved – you can back out the effect if you don’t like it.

    1. >The logo… did you photograph an actual toy?

      No. It’s the “scrubbing bubble” animated character from an advertising campaign that was ubiquitous when I was a kid.

  1. > Normally, starting from the revision you specify, it turns all later revisions into a patch sequence, then attempts to replay them onto a new branch named $HEAD-debubbled, where $HEAD names the current branch. If the replay succeeds, the branch names are shuffled so that the debubbled branch is named $HEAD and the old branch becomes $HEAD-bubbled.

    This, except for the safety (though there always is reflog), is what rebase does. You can run rebase on merged in branch, you just need to specify where to start:

    git rebase –onto <new-base> <upstream-or-start-revision> <branch-to-rebase>

    where upstream-or-start-revision is a “negative” revision (in the revision walk sense: all revisions visible from another one and not visible from this one).

    [I hope that the formatting is all right]

    1. >This, except for the safety (though there always is reflog), is what rebase does. You can run rebase on merged in branch, you just need to specify where to start:

      Ahhh. I was unaware of the -onto option.

  2. @esr:
    >No. It’s the “scrubbing bubble” animated character from an advertising campaign that was ubiquitous when I was a kid.

    Advertising tends to cause such a strong memetic immune reaction in me that I could never use any element from any advertising campaign I had been exposed to as the logo for anything I produced. Exposure during my childhood and the campaign being targeted towards children tend to be predictors of an especially strong reaction (generally an intense sense of embarrassment on re-exposure, or if others react positively to an ad that is visible or audible in the room, rather than heckling or ignoring it).

    Given some of your earlier posts on the personality characteristics of nerds, it would be interesting to research if this is just one of my quirks, a characteristic of most “standard nerds”, or a characteristic of most nerds, standard or nonstandard, that you happen not to exhibit for some reason.

  3. > No. It’s the “scrubbing bubble” animated character from an advertising campaign that was ubiquitous when I was a kid.

    Thanks. I asked because Google Images had failed to find similar pictures. But after you replied, I searched for “scrubbing bubble” and succeeded. Looks like their “Search by image” feature still needs some improvement.

    @ Jon Brase

    My reaction to advertising usually ranges from indifference to contempt. But there are a few ads I remember fondly. And, of course, I tend to like those that revolve around dogs or cats. I’m a sucker for our cute little furry friends! ^_^

  4. @jon: I don’t know about standard, but I share that quirk. In my book, most advertising stands somewhere between theft of attention and mental assault.

    I remember a particularly offensive radio campaign Toyota was running a long time back — it involved a series of Joe Schlubs who believed that buying a Toyota made them qualified to perform brain surgery, nuclear engineering, and a few other things I don’t recall, because obviously the purchase was a signal of genius. I don’t know what their numbers were like afterward, but I found the ads so irritating that I resolved to never buy anything from them ever.

  5. I don’t recall Toyota using that advertising campaign, but I do recall a hotel chain using it (I think it was Holiday Inn, but I’m not going to bother looking it up).

    I would be wary about using an existing advertising logo or icon for anything I did, as the owners of such mark may serve a cease and desist. That happened to me in the late 90s when I had a web page with “Welcome Wagon” on it. I did not know it was trademarked until a certified letter showed up at my web hosting company requesting that page be removed from the website.

    1. >I would be wary about using an existing advertising logo or icon for anything I did, as the owners of such mark may serve a cease and desist

      Well, sure. But taking it down after a C&D is a one-click operation, so very little skin off my nose.

  6. On page https://gitlab.com/esr/git-debubble s/afyterwards/afterwards

    diff output:

    143c143
    < A tool for cleaning up merge bubbles in git repositories. Linearizes the history downstream from a specified commit. Has appropriate safety checks and instructions on what to do afterwards if you ever run this on public commits.

    > A tool for cleaning up merge bubbles in git repositories. Linearizes the history downstream from a specified commit. Has appropriate safety checks and instructions on what to do afyterwards if you ever run this on public commits.

  7. @ A

    I was likewise offended by a Samsung ad whose ending condones deceit and theft.

    Still, to redeem the world of advertising, I want to share a funny ad. Warning: it depicts sex between dogs (twice, but briefly in both cases), so it may not be safe for work. Here it is.

    Of course, Apple’s well-known “1984” ad wasn’t bad, either. I also like that ad of theirs that features the Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow”.

    @ esr

    > taking [the logo] down after a C&D is a one-click operation, so very little skin off my nose.

    Just as long as the bubble stays, let it steal your heart away.

    Anyway, while we’re at it, where did you get Shipper’s truck?

    1. >Anyway, while we’re at it, where did you get Shipper’s truck?

      I don’t remember. Some random clip-art site.

  8. >I would be wary about using an existing advertising logo or icon for anything I did, as the owners of such mark may serve a cease and desist.

    Perhaps a picture of a pin just making contact with a bubble would serve better, as it avoids any association with that product.

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