Defeating Git Rigour Fatigue with Jujutsu

4 hours ago

Jujutsu (jj) helps manage commits in large feature development but still requires effort and can lead to 'git rigour fatigue'.
Common methods like jj absorb and jj squash -i have limitations: absorb assigns changes based on file touch history, while squash can cause merge conflicts if boundaries aren't clean.
A proposed solution involves creating an ideal commit history first, using commands like jj new to set up 'messy' commits representing different change types (e.g., red for types, blue for UI).
The technique squashes all changes into one commit and then interactively redistributes them into their respective commits using jj squash -i, ensuring each change ends up in the correct place.
This workflow allows for improvised commits with temporary states during development, tidying everything up in one sweep at the end, making it easier than maintaining strict git rigour throughout.
Compared to jj split, this method handles missed hunks more easily and avoids conflicts by guaranteeing the final 'everything commit' is empty and conflict-free.
A downside is that there's no guarantee each commit will compile, which might be a limitation for some development environments.
The technique lacks a formal name but is humorously referred to as 'Doing Commits Like A Big Pile Of Laundry'.

Hasty Briefsbeta