rebase: add --allow-empty-message option

This option allows commits with empty commit messages to be rebased,
matching the same option in git-commit and git-cherry-pick. While empty
log messages are frowned upon, sometimes one finds them in older
repositories (e.g. translated from another VCS [0]), or have other
reasons for desiring them. The option is available in git-commit and
git-cherry-pick, so it is natural to make other git tools play nicely
with them. Adding this as an option allows the default to be "give the
user a chance to fix", while not interrupting the user's workflow
otherwise [1].

  [0]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/8542304
  [1]: https://public-inbox.org/git/7vd33afqjh.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org/

To implement this, add a new --allow-empty-message flag. Then propagate
it to all calls of 'git commit', 'git cherry-pick', and 'git rebase--helper'
within the rebase scripts.

Signed-off-by: Genki Sky <sky@genki.is>
Reviewed-by: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Documentation/git-rebase.txt

@@ -244,6 +244,11 @@ leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
 	Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
 	parents in the result.
 
+--allow-empty-message::
+	By default, rebasing commits with an empty message will fail.
+	This option overrides that behavior, allowing commits with empty
+	messages to be rebased.
+
 --skip::
 	Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
 

builtin/rebase--helper.c

@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ int cmd_rebase__helper(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	struct option options[] = {
 		OPT_BOOL(0, "ff", &opts.allow_ff, N_("allow fast-forward")),
 		OPT_BOOL(0, "keep-empty", &keep_empty, N_("keep empty commits")),
+		OPT_BOOL(0, "allow-empty-message", &opts.allow_empty_message,
+			N_("allow commits with empty messages")),
 		OPT_CMDMODE(0, "continue", &command, N_("continue rebase"),
 				CONTINUE),
 		OPT_CMDMODE(0, "abort", &command, N_("abort rebase"),

git-rebase--am.sh

@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ then
 	# makes this easy
 	git cherry-pick ${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} --allow-empty \
 		$allow_rerere_autoupdate --right-only "$revisions" \
+		$allow_empty_message \
 		${restrict_revision+^$restrict_revision}
 	ret=$?
 else

git-rebase--interactive.sh

@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ pick_one () {
 
 	test -d "$rewritten" &&
 		pick_one_preserving_merges "$@" && return
-	output eval git cherry-pick $allow_rerere_autoupdate \
+	output eval git cherry-pick $allow_rerere_autoupdate $allow_empty_message \
 			${gpg_sign_opt:+$(git rev-parse --sq-quote "$gpg_sign_opt")} \
 			"$strategy_args" $empty_args $ff "$@"
 
@@ -406,6 +406,7 @@ pick_one_preserving_merges () {
 			;;
 		*)
 			output eval git cherry-pick $allow_rerere_autoupdate \
+				$allow_empty_message \
 				${gpg_sign_opt:+$(git rev-parse --sq-quote "$gpg_sign_opt")} \
 				"$strategy_args" "$@" ||
 				die_with_patch $sha1 "$(eval_gettext "Could not pick \$sha1")"
@@ -559,7 +560,8 @@ do_next () {
 
 		mark_action_done
 		do_pick $sha1 "$rest"
-		git commit --amend --no-post-rewrite ${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} || {
+		git commit --amend --no-post-rewrite ${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} \
+			$allow_empty_message || {
 			warn "$(eval_gettext "\
 Could not amend commit after successfully picking \$sha1... \$rest
 This is most likely due to an empty commit message, or the pre-commit hook
@@ -607,7 +609,7 @@ you are able to reword the commit.")"
 			# This is an intermediate commit; its message will only be
 			# used in case of trouble.  So use the long version:
 			do_with_author output git commit --amend --no-verify -F "$squash_msg" \
-				${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} ||
+				${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} $allow_empty_message ||
 				die_failed_squash $sha1 "$rest"
 			;;
 		*)
@@ -615,13 +617,13 @@ you are able to reword the commit.")"
 			if test -f "$fixup_msg"
 			then
 				do_with_author git commit --amend --no-verify -F "$fixup_msg" \
-					${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} ||
+					${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} $allow_empty_message ||
 					die_failed_squash $sha1 "$rest"
 			else
 				cp "$squash_msg" "$GIT_DIR"/SQUASH_MSG || exit
 				rm -f "$GIT_DIR"/MERGE_MSG
 				do_with_author git commit --amend --no-verify -F "$GIT_DIR"/SQUASH_MSG -e \
-					${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} ||
+					${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} $allow_empty_message ||
 					die_failed_squash $sha1 "$rest"
 			fi
 			rm -f "$squash_msg" "$fixup_msg"
@@ -754,7 +756,8 @@ case "$action" in
 continue)
 	if test ! -d "$rewritten"
 	then
-		exec git rebase--helper ${force_rebase:+--no-ff} --continue
+		exec git rebase--helper ${force_rebase:+--no-ff} $allow_empty_message \
+			--continue
 	fi
 	# do we have anything to commit?
 	if git diff-index --cached --quiet HEAD --
@@ -794,11 +797,11 @@ In both cases, once you're done, continue with:
 You have uncommitted changes in your working tree. Please commit them
 first and then run 'git rebase --continue' again.")"
 			do_with_author git commit --amend --no-verify -F "$msg" -e \
-				${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} ||
+				${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} $allow_empty_message ||
 				die "$(gettext "Could not commit staged changes.")"
 		else
 			do_with_author git commit --no-verify -F "$msg" -e \
-				${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} ||
+				${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} $allow_empty_message ||
 				die "$(gettext "Could not commit staged changes.")"
 		fi
 	fi
@@ -817,7 +820,8 @@ skip)
 
 	if test ! -d "$rewritten"
 	then
-		exec git rebase--helper ${force_rebase:+--no-ff} --continue
+		exec git rebase--helper ${force_rebase:+--no-ff} $allow_empty_message \
+			--continue
 	fi
 	do_rest
 	return 0
@@ -1016,7 +1020,8 @@ checkout_onto
 if test -z "$rebase_root" && test ! -d "$rewritten"
 then
 	require_clean_work_tree "rebase"
-	exec git rebase--helper ${force_rebase:+--no-ff} --continue
+	exec git rebase--helper ${force_rebase:+--no-ff} $allow_empty_message \
+		--continue
 fi
 do_rest
 

git-rebase--merge.sh

@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ continue_merge () {
 	cmt=$(cat "$state_dir/current")
 	if ! git diff-index --quiet --ignore-submodules HEAD --
 	then
-		if ! git commit ${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} --no-verify -C "$cmt"
+		if ! git commit ${gpg_sign_opt:+"$gpg_sign_opt"} $allow_empty_message \
+			--no-verify -C "$cmt"
 		then
 			echo "Commit failed, please do not call \"git commit\""
 			echo "directly, but instead do one of the following: "

git-rebase.sh

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ m,merge!           use merging strategies to rebase
 i,interactive!     let the user edit the list of commits to rebase
 x,exec=!           add exec lines after each commit of the editable list
 k,keep-empty	   preserve empty commits during rebase
+allow-empty-message allow rebasing commits with empty messages
 f,force-rebase!    force rebase even if branch is up to date
 X,strategy-option=! pass the argument through to the merge strategy
 stat!              display a diffstat of what changed upstream
@@ -89,6 +90,7 @@ action=
 preserve_merges=
 autosquash=
 keep_empty=
+allow_empty_message=
 test "$(git config --bool rebase.autosquash)" = "true" && autosquash=t
 case "$(git config --bool commit.gpgsign)" in
 true)	gpg_sign_opt=-S ;;
@@ -262,6 +264,9 @@ do
 	--keep-empty)
 		keep_empty=yes
 		;;
+	--allow-empty-message)
+		allow_empty_message=--allow-empty-message
+		;;
 	--preserve-merges)
 		preserve_merges=t
 		test -z "$interactive_rebase" && interactive_rebase=implied

t/t3405-rebase-malformed.sh

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 test_description='rebase should handle arbitrary git message'
 
 . ./test-lib.sh
+. "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/lib-rebase.sh
 
 cat >F <<\EOF
 This is an example of a commit log message
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 	test_tick &&
 	git commit -m "Initial commit" &&
 	git branch diff-in-message &&
+	git branch empty-message-merge &&
 
 	git checkout -b multi-line-subject &&
 	cat F >file2 &&
@@ -45,6 +47,11 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 
 	git cat-file commit HEAD | sed -e "1,/^\$/d" >G0 &&
 
+	git checkout empty-message-merge &&
+	echo file3 >file3 &&
+	git add file3 &&
+	git commit --allow-empty-message -m "" &&
+
 	git checkout master &&
 
 	echo One >file1 &&
@@ -69,4 +76,20 @@ test_expect_success 'rebase commit with diff in message' '
 	test_cmp G G0
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'rebase -m commit with empty message' '
+	test_must_fail git rebase -m master empty-message-merge &&
+	git rebase --abort &&
+	git rebase -m --allow-empty-message master empty-message-merge
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'rebase -i commit with empty message' '
+	git checkout diff-in-message &&
+	set_fake_editor &&
+	test_must_fail env FAKE_COMMIT_MESSAGE=" " FAKE_LINES="reword 1" \
+		git rebase -i HEAD^ &&
+	git rebase --abort &&
+	FAKE_COMMIT_MESSAGE=" " FAKE_LINES="reword 1" \
+		git rebase -i --allow-empty-message HEAD^
+'
+
 test_done