Use list of strings for the --base-branch option on the run command

[mrg2k8]

Hello,

I have a set-up with multiple repositories with branches corresponding to various environments. However, some environments might be missing, on purpose:

repo-1, branches dev, uat, main
repo-2, branches uat,main
repo-3, branches main

Moreover, the default branch might not be set correctly.

It would be a good idea to allow a list of strings on the run --base-branch option to try all defined branches in a predefined order and then to default to the default branch if none of these are found. Currently only one branch is being tried.

I can implement this on my own, but wanted to confirm before I start working on it. Thanks.

[lindell]

This seems like a good idea!

But I think that this part: "and then to default to the default branch if none of these are found" should be its separate feature/pr/flag since it's not how it works today.

But multiple base branches should be definable without breaking any backwards compatibility 😄

[mrg2k8]

It was easier for us to create a script that checks whether the default branch is configured correctly, so I will not be implementing this. We can keep it as an idea for the future.

[jamestelfer]

What if it were to support special name of <default> in the list of base branches?

[lindell]

My first instinct was to like this. But when thinking about it a bit more, I realised that it only ever make sense to have it at the end.
--base-branches master,main,<default> doing something like --base-branches master,<default>,main will never pick main.

Because of this, I think that a flag is better. I don't know the exact name, but something like "use default branch if defined base branch does not exist", but in a shorter form.

[jamestelfer]

This would be neat. I'm currently using a convention where we create a preupdate-fix branch if we need to, then use some git scripting shenanigans to rebase the multi-gitter branch on that if it exists.

The only odd thing that I currently do is rebase the preupdate-fix branch onto the default branch first. I don't think that's functionality that would be all that simple or useful to put into this tool, and it would be a bit error prone.

[ns-ggeorgiev]

any progress on support of <defualt> option