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Git Notes: Git's coolest, most unloved­ feature (2022)

(tylercipriani.com)
577 points Delgan | 3 comments | 22 Jun 25 09:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.823s | source
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ozim ◴[22 Jun 25 21:55 UTC] No.44350631[source]▶
It is not coolest most unloved feature. It is a gimmick feature that could have been cool in some really specific cases like team of only developers running the whole company.

Whatever is needed goes into commit message and referencing tickets in separate system is a feature not a bug - because JIRA or any other system is used to communicate with non developers. Like business analysts don't get access to code or repositories at all for example or support people don't get access to the repositories and code.

Yeah I can see how one could write front end to get the notes visible/editable by non developers but it still does not make any sense because BA/Support others don't care about specific commits and a single feature might fit into a commit but most likely does not. Even more fun is when you have multi repo and your feature touches couple services then git notes are quite useless because then you really need reference to outside system.

replies(2): >>44350820 #>>44356853 #
1. chrishill89 ◴[23 Jun 25 15:37 UTC] No.44356853[source]▶
There’s plenty of data which is extra-commit (doesn’t belong in the commit messages but is relevant). Like if the tests passed[1], manual testing notes, iteration on code review, notes for code spelunking when you find a problematic 6+ month old commit.

[^1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44348438

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2. ozim ◴[23 Jun 25 21:13 UTC] No.44360181[source]▶
Yeah but GIT notes are not the best tool for that unless you are single dev working on your project or you have team of only devs.

If you have manual testers they have their own set of tools and most of them don’t use or have working knowledge of GIT.

For code reviews everyone is using PRs and it is not because they don’t know about GIT notes but because no one is doing reviews per commit and there is no support for discussion and other tools that are baked in forges PR flows.

You can always use git notes for yourself but it is as I called it gimmick feature. I can make a bet you will use it for a week maybe couple weeks and then just stop because in description it sounds good but in practice - no one is using it.

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3. chrishill89 ◴[24 Jun 25 07:17 UTC] No.44363622[source]▶
> You can always use git notes for yourself but it is as I called it gimmick feature. I can make a bet you will use it for a week maybe couple weeks and then just stop because in description it sounds good but in practice - no one is using it.

I'll take that bet.