Bram Cohen Says Git Will Fail

Bram: Honestly, that you would think of doing whole-tree three-way merges and even consider moving lines between files shows that you haven't explored the merge problem very deeply. This is a much harder problem than you think it is, and one which has already been solved by other systems. What I'd really like to hear is some explanation of why git is reimplementing all of this stuff from scratch. Your implicit claims that git will do more things than the other systems without having to reinvent all of their functionality first are, honestly, naive, ill-informed arrogance. I'd like to reiterate that *nothing* out there supports moving lines between files, and further predict, with total confidence, that if git tries to support such functionality it will simply fail, either by giving up or creating a system which can behave horribly. Before you get all dismissive about this claim, please remember that I've spent years thinking about merge algorithms, and have actually designed and implemented them, and have spoken at length with other people who have done the same, while you've merely thought about them for a few weeks. Linus: Me personally, I want to have something that is very repeatable and non-clever. Something I understand _or_ tells me that it

Скриншот текстового спора между Bram и Linus о возможностях Git и слиянии файлов. Bram уверенно утверждает, что Git не сможет корректно перемещать строки между файлами, а Linus настаивает на простом и предсказуемом подходе. Шутка строится на последующем контексте: Git доказал скептику обратное, а автор BitTorrent позже превратил его в рекламное ПО. EN: A screenshot of a written argument between Bram and Linus about Git’s capabilities and file merging. Bram confidently claims that Git will not be able to move lines between files correctly, while Linus insists on a simple and predictable approach. The joke relies on the later context: Git proved the skeptic wrong, while the BitTorrent creator later turned it into adware.

• @gentoomemes / 20817 2026-05-04