Gitflow - 为什么当我完成一个功能分支时没有打开编辑器？

Question

I use gitflow on linux.

When I finish a hotfix branch, my vi editor opens and I can write a merge message. The merge message is now in the commit history.

But when I finish feature branches, no vi editor opens, I can't write no merge message. So there is no trace in the commit history.

It's annoying. Could someone explain me why ? Is it a config problem ?

To create a feature branch: git flow feature start feature_branch .

To finish a feature branch: git flow feature finish feature_branch . According the doc finish is similar to: git checkout develop git merge feature_branch

Answer 1

Although I've been using the Git Flow branching strategy for years, I confess I've never used the git flow commands before, but I just tested them out and can confirm what you're witnessing, though some clarifications are in order.

As best I can tell, you aren't ever prompted to write a commit message for any of the merge commits . However, when you finish a hotfix or release branch, you are prompted to write the Tag message , which happens to also be included in the merge commit message details (below the commit title), so it may look like you were writing the merge commit message. Since only releases and hotfixes are tagged, this is why you aren't prompted with an editor when you finish feature branches.

Regarding the --no-ff merges, the following rules are in place:

1. When finishing a release or hotfix branch, the merge is always performed with the --no-ff flag.
2. When finishing a feature branch that has 2 or more new commits, the merge is performed with the --no-ff flag.
3. When finishing a feature branch that has exactly 1 new commit, the merge is performed with the --ff flag (which is also the default for merge).

Note that using -ff in the third rule means it will do a fast-forward if possible, meaning the merge commit is sometimes avoided, which is interesting because AFAIK this isn't suggested anywhere in the Git Flow documentation. It does make sense though since there is no information gain from forcing a merge commit when you only have a single commit to merge in. It still stays true to the --first-parent view of the develop branch showing all completed feature branches.

Side Note: when I personally use Git Flow, I always force the merge commit even for single commit merges, because I put additional PR information in the customized merge commit messages. This is one of the reasons I don't use the git flow commands. (Besides, our SCM tool handles the merges of completed Pull Requests anyway, so no one would "finish" anything themselves.)