reject merges on gdb release branches?

[Joel Brobecker]

> > I'm not trying to advocate one or the other, rather just trying to 
> > understand the reasoning behind the decision.
> 
> So am I.  And I still don't understand that reasoning.
> 
> Let me turn the table and ask: are there any objections to removing
> this restriction on master, and leaving it only on the branch?  If
> there are no objections, can we please remove the restriction?

On a personal level, it does not really matter all that much to me,
one way or the other, but from the project's perspective and its
variety of contributors, I would like to object to allowing merge
commits on master. I think we cannot expect all our contributors
to know git well, and for those who don't have a good command of
that tool, branch merges are more difficult to understand than
simple commits.  Rejecting merges makes sure that the history
remains linear.

I still do not understand what the problem is with rebasing though.
You said "loss of information". Can you explain a bit more?

-- 
Joel