It depends on how out of date the PR branch gets from the upstream master.
For long-running PRs it is important to periodically merge master, or at
least to do it as the PR is winding down and before integration. See
JDK-8289751 [1], which was caused by PR #741 [2] being integrated
without having done this merge, for an example of what can happen if you
don't.
For shorter running PRs it is optional, as long as you are reasonably
certain that there is no adverse interaction between your PR and any
commits in the upstream master that have gone in since your merge base.
I typically don't merge in such cases if I know that my PR is touching
an area that has been unmodified by any other integrated PRs.
-- Kevin
[1] https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8289751
[2] https://github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/741
On 8/15/2022 3:53 AM, Jeanette Winzenburg wrote:
.. is something I _personally_ don't like: have to mentally sort the
related from the unrelated commits in the history.
The contributing guidelines do allow intermediate merges (bolding by me)
"If you __need__ to pick up changes from master, you can merge master
into your branch"
my interpretation would be: don't without good reason.
To merge or not to merge, that is the quesion :)
-- Jeanette
