git merge --squash issue with loading commit message/detecting merge state

[mithom]

When doing a merge with the squash option, there is a difference between CLI and GUI right now that is annoying.
Sourcegit is not detecting the default merge message or $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD state. Because of this, it is unclear that the merge still needs to be committed (that's fine for me). More importantly, the commit screen does not give the default commit message.
When testing in command line

here is an example where i just instantly closed the commit message editor without changing anything through command line.
default commit example.txt

and this is the state after a squash merge in sourcegit:

the documentation specifies that this should be detected through the $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD variable that is changed:

--squash
--no-squash

Produce the working tree and index state as if a real merge happened (except for the merge information), but do not actually make a commit, move the HEAD, or record $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD (to cause the next git commit command to create a merge commit). This allows you to create a single commit on top of the current branch whose effect is the same as merging another branch (or more in case of an octopus).

With --no-squash perform the merge and commit the result. This option can be used to override --squash.
With --squash, --commit is not allowed, and will fail.

i already took a look at the merge command, everything seemed fine there, i'll be looking at the commit window next to see if i can find the issue over there.

[love-linger]

It's because that the auto-generated message by git merge --squash command is stored in $GIT_DIR/SQUASH_MSG instead of $GIT_DIR/MERGE_MSG. And SourceGit does not read it.

And I do not think the auto-generated message by git merge --squash commit is a good one to be directly used in next git commit command. Because the subject is a meaningless line - Squashed commit of the following:, which user can not understand what this commit does from. (Both SourceGit and the git log --oneline only show the subject of a commit). And for squashing-merge, store the information about original commits (as they may be deleted later) is useless.

Please give me some time to carefully consider whether to introduce this feature—attempting to read the $GIT_DIR/MERGE_MSG file

[mithom]

I agree that the default message is not very good.
The regular squash message is way better actually (if i recall correctly).
This would mean that what i personally would like, would be a change in the git behavior and only after that a sourcegit one. Doing a custom implementation here sounds like a bad precedent to me and i will not be asking that.

If you do not find a good solution, i'm fine with this being closed. I like the direction you're going with the software and trust you to make a correct call.
If you need more info from me, do let me know.
Thanks for looking into it!

[love-linger]

I've decided to read the $GIT_DIR/SQUASH_MSG file after running git merge --squash command successfully, but only if the operation occurs in SourceGit (this behavior will not be triggered if the git merge --squash operation is executed directly from the command line).

By doing this, users can directly modify the original commit message without having to manually copy it.

Additionally, the visibility of the Customize merge message option has been optimized. This option will no longer be displayed when the user selects the Squash or Don't commit modes.