undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdiggan10y ago0 comments

I don't want to nitpick but for a Git beginner (not necessarily you but others reading here), it's important to know that "pull request" is really a Github concept, not a Git one.

0 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

realityking10y ago· 3 in thread

Pull request is very much git terminology. Here's the documentation for 'git request-pull': https://git-scm.com/docs/git-request-pull

ultrafez10y ago

If you're being picky, then I can be picky too: the concept of a "pull request" isn't defined in that manpage, only the command "request-pull" is. A "pull request" is an entity in itself.

The command may exist within git, but it's not a part of most people's git workflows. "Pull Request" is a term that's far more commonly attributed-to and associated with tools like GitHub, Gitlab, Bitbucket etc.

Did you know that git has the ability to send patches via email, built in [1]? Git has a lot of functions that the majority of people don't use.

[1] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-send-email

realityking10y ago

The claim was that a pull request is not a git concept, I think that's demonstratively false. I won't deny that GitHub popularized it, but they have by no means invented it.

As another piece of evidence, see this page https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/SubmittingPatches

It says Linus (and other kernel maintainer) will want a pull request from you if you want to contribute code, yet he thinks GitHubs version of pull request is, well, lacking (http://www.wired.com/2012/05/torvalds_github/)

jameshart10y ago

You're being ridiculously obtuse here. A 'pull request' is simply the result of calling the git 'request-pull' command. That's just how english works, because the result of 'requesting' is a 'request', so the result of 'requesting a pull' is a 'pull request', in the same way that the result of 'ordering a pizza' is a 'pizza order', and if git had an 'order-pizza' command, it would result in 'pizza orders'.

notatoad10y ago

It may not be a part of the actual git software package, but it's a feature of many Git workflows, not just GitHub.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse