cherry-pick: Add --empty for more robust redundant commit handling

As with git-rebase(1) and git-am(1), git-cherry-pick(1) can result in a
commit being made redundant if the content from the picked commit is
already present in the target history. However, git-cherry-pick(1) does
not have the same options available that git-rebase(1) and git-am(1) have.

There are three things that can be done with these redundant commits:
drop them, keep them, or have the cherry-pick stop and wait for the user
to take an action. git-rebase(1) has the `--empty` option added in commit
e98c426 (rebase (interactive-backend): fix handling of commits that
become empty, 2020-02-15), which handles all three of these scenarios.
Similarly, git-am(1) got its own `--empty` in 7c096b8 (am: support
--empty=<option> to handle empty patches, 2021-12-09).

git-cherry-pick(1), on the other hand, only supports two of the three
possiblities: Keep the redundant commits via `--keep-redundant-commits`,
or have the cherry-pick fail by not specifying that option. There is no
way to automatically drop redundant commits.

In order to bring git-cherry-pick(1) more in-line with git-rebase(1) and
git-am(1), this commit adds an `--empty` option to git-cherry-pick(1). It
has the same three options (keep, drop, and stop), and largely behaves
the same. The notable difference is that for git-cherry-pick(1), the
default will be `stop`, which maintains the current behavior when the
option is not specified.

The `--keep-redundant-commits` option will be documented as a deprecated
synonym of `--empty=keep`, and will be supported for backwards
compatibility for the time being.

Signed-off-by: Brian Lyles <[email protected]>

Documentation/git-cherry-pick.txt

@@ -132,23 +132,37 @@ effect to your index in a row.
 	keeps commits that were initially empty (i.e. the commit recorded the
 	same tree as its parent).  Commits which are made empty due to a
 	previous commit will cause the cherry-pick to fail.  To force the
-	inclusion of those commits use `--keep-redundant-commits`.
+	inclusion of those commits use `--empty=keep`.
 
 --allow-empty-message::
 	By default, cherry-picking a commit with an empty message will fail.
 	This option overrides that behavior, allowing commits with empty
 	messages to be cherry picked.
 
---keep-redundant-commits::
-	If a commit being cherry picked duplicates a commit already in the
-	current history, it will become empty.  By default these
-	redundant commits cause `cherry-pick` to stop so the user can
-	examine the commit. This option overrides that behavior and
-	creates an empty commit object. Note that use of this option only
+--empty=(stop|drop|keep)::
+	How to handle commits being cherry-picked that are redundant with
+	changes already in the current history.
++
+--
+`stop`;;
+	The cherry-pick will stop when the empty commit is applied, allowing
+	you to examine the commit. This is the default behavior.
+`drop`;;
+	The empty commit will be dropped.
+`keep`;;
+	The empty commit will be kept. Note that use of this option only
 	results in an empty commit when the commit was not initially empty,
 	but rather became empty due to a previous commit. Commits that were
 	initially empty will cause the cherry-pick to fail. To force the
 	inclusion of those commits use `--allow-empty`.
+--
++
+Note that commits which start empty will cause the cherry-pick to fail (unless
+`--allow-empty` is specified).
++
+
+--keep-redundant-commits::
+	Deprecated synonym for `--empty=keep`.
 
 --strategy=<strategy>::
 	Use the given merge strategy.  Should only be used once.

builtin/revert.c

@@ -45,6 +45,30 @@ static const char * const *revert_or_cherry_pick_usage(struct replay_opts *opts)
 	return opts->action == REPLAY_REVERT ? revert_usage : cherry_pick_usage;
 }
 
+enum empty_action {
+	STOP_ON_EMPTY_COMMIT = 0,  /* output errors and stop in the middle of a cherry-pick */
+	DROP_EMPTY_COMMIT,         /* skip with a notice message */
+	KEEP_EMPTY_COMMIT,         /* keep recording as empty commits */
+};
+
+static int parse_opt_empty(const struct option *opt, const char *arg, int unset)
+{
+	int *opt_value = opt->value;
+
+	BUG_ON_OPT_NEG(unset);
+
+	if (!strcmp(arg, "stop"))
+		*opt_value = STOP_ON_EMPTY_COMMIT;
+	else if (!strcmp(arg, "drop"))
+		*opt_value = DROP_EMPTY_COMMIT;
+	else if (!strcmp(arg, "keep"))
+		*opt_value = KEEP_EMPTY_COMMIT;
+	else
+		return error(_("invalid value for '%s': '%s'"), "--empty", arg);
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
 static int option_parse_m(const struct option *opt,
 			  const char *arg, int unset)
 {
@@ -87,6 +111,7 @@ static int run_sequencer(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 	const char * const * usage_str = revert_or_cherry_pick_usage(opts);
 	const char *me = action_name(opts);
 	const char *cleanup_arg = NULL;
+	enum empty_action empty_opt;
 	int cmd = 0;
 	struct option base_options[] = {
 		OPT_CMDMODE(0, "quit", &cmd, N_("end revert or cherry-pick sequence"), 'q'),
@@ -116,7 +141,10 @@ static int run_sequencer(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 			OPT_BOOL(0, "ff", &opts->allow_ff, N_("allow fast-forward")),
 			OPT_BOOL(0, "allow-empty", &opts->allow_empty, N_("preserve initially empty commits")),
 			OPT_BOOL(0, "allow-empty-message", &opts->allow_empty_message, N_("allow commits with empty messages")),
-			OPT_BOOL(0, "keep-redundant-commits", &opts->keep_redundant_commits, N_("keep redundant, empty commits")),
+			OPT_BOOL(0, "keep-redundant-commits", &opts->keep_redundant_commits, N_("deprecated: use --empty=keep instead")),
+			OPT_CALLBACK_F(0, "empty", &empty_opt, "(stop|drop|keep)",
+				       N_("how to handle commits that become empty"),
+				       PARSE_OPT_NONEG, parse_opt_empty),
 			OPT_END(),
 		};
 		options = parse_options_concat(options, cp_extra);
@@ -136,6 +164,11 @@ static int run_sequencer(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 	prepare_repo_settings(the_repository);
 	the_repository->settings.command_requires_full_index = 0;
 
+	if (opts->action == REPLAY_PICK) {
+		opts->drop_redundant_commits = (empty_opt == DROP_EMPTY_COMMIT);
+		opts->keep_redundant_commits = opts->keep_redundant_commits || (empty_opt == KEEP_EMPTY_COMMIT);
+	}
+
 	if (cleanup_arg) {
 		opts->default_msg_cleanup = get_cleanup_mode(cleanup_arg, 1);
 		opts->explicit_cleanup = 1;

sequencer.c

@@ -2930,6 +2930,9 @@ static int populate_opts_cb(const char *key, const char *value,
 	else if (!strcmp(key, "options.allow-empty-message"))
 		opts->allow_empty_message =
 			git_config_bool_or_int(key, value, ctx->kvi, &error_flag);
+	else if (!strcmp(key, "options.drop-redundant-commits"))
+		opts->drop_redundant_commits =
+			git_config_bool_or_int(key, value, ctx->kvi, &error_flag);
 	else if (!strcmp(key, "options.keep-redundant-commits"))
 		opts->keep_redundant_commits =
 			git_config_bool_or_int(key, value, ctx->kvi, &error_flag);
@@ -3474,6 +3477,9 @@ static int save_opts(struct replay_opts *opts)
 	if (opts->allow_empty_message)
 		res |= git_config_set_in_file_gently(opts_file,
 				"options.allow-empty-message", "true");
+	if (opts->drop_redundant_commits)
+		res |= git_config_set_in_file_gently(opts_file,
+				"options.drop-redundant-commits", "true");
 	if (opts->keep_redundant_commits)
 		res |= git_config_set_in_file_gently(opts_file,
 				"options.keep-redundant-commits", "true");

t/t3505-cherry-pick-empty.sh

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a commit that becomes no-op (prep)' '
 	git commit -m "add file2 on the side"
 '
 
-test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a no-op without --keep-redundant' '
+test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a no-op with neither --keep-redundant nor --empty' '
 	git reset --hard &&
 	git checkout fork^0 &&
 	test_must_fail git cherry-pick main
@@ -104,4 +104,28 @@ test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a no-op with --keep-redundant' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a no-op with --empty=ask' '
+	git reset --hard &&
+	git checkout fork^0 &&
+	test_must_fail git cherry-pick --empty=ask main
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a no-op with --empty=drop' '
+	git reset --hard &&
+	git checkout fork^0 &&
+	git cherry-pick --empty=drop main &&
+	git show -s --format=%s >actual &&
+	echo "add file2 on the side" >expect &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'cherry-pick a no-op with --empty=keep' '
+	git reset --hard &&
+	git checkout fork^0 &&
+	git cherry-pick --empty=keep main &&
+	git show -s --format=%s >actual &&
+	echo "add file2 on main" >expect &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
 test_done