rebase-interactive: drop early check for valid ident

Since the very inception of interactive-rebase in 1b1dce4
(Teach rebase an interactive mode, 2007-06-25), there has
been a preemptive check, before looking at any commits, to
see whether the user has a valid name/email combination.

This is convenient, because it means that we abort the
operation before even beginning (rather than just
complaining that we are unable to pick a particular commit).

However, it does the wrong thing when the rebase does not
actually need to generate any new commits (e.g., a
fast-forward with no commits to pick, or one where the base
stays the same, and we just pick the same commits without
rewriting anything). In this case it may complain about the
lack of ident, even though one would not be needed to
complete the operation.

This may seem like mere nit-picking, but because interactive
rebase underlies the "preserve-merges" rebase, somebody who
has set "pull.rebase" to "preserve" cannot make even a
fast-forward pull without a valid ident, as we bail before
even realizing the fast-forward nature.

This commit drops the extra ident check entirely. This means
we rely on individual commands that generate commit objects
to complain. So we will continue to notice and prevent cases
that actually do create commits, but with one important
difference: we fail while actually executing the "pick"
operations, and leave the rebase in a conflicted, half-done
state.

In some ways this is less convenient, but in some ways it is
more so; the user can then manually commit or even "git
rebase --continue" after setting up their ident (or
providing it as a one-off on the command line).

Reported-by: Dakota Hawkins <dakotahawkins@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

git-rebase--interactive.sh

@@ -1180,9 +1180,6 @@ To continue rebase after editing, run:
 	;;
 esac
 
-git var GIT_COMMITTER_IDENT >/dev/null ||
-	die "$(gettext "You need to set your committer info first")"
-
 comment_for_reflog start
 
 if test ! -z "$switch_to"

t/t7517-per-repo-email.sh

@@ -36,4 +36,51 @@ test_expect_success 'succeeds cloning if global email is not set' '
 	git clone . clone
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'set up rebase scenarios' '
+	# temporarily enable an actual ident for this setup
+	test_config user.email foo@example.com &&
+	test_commit new &&
+	git branch side-without-commit HEAD^ &&
+	git checkout -b side-with-commit HEAD^ &&
+	test_commit side
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'fast-forward rebase does not care about ident' '
+	git checkout -B tmp side-without-commit &&
+	git rebase master
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'non-fast-forward rebase refuses to write commits' '
+	test_when_finished "git rebase --abort || true" &&
+	git checkout -B tmp side-with-commit &&
+	test_must_fail git rebase master
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'fast-forward rebase does not care about ident (interactive)' '
+	git checkout -B tmp side-without-commit &&
+	git rebase -i master
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'non-fast-forward rebase refuses to write commits (interactive)' '
+	test_when_finished "git rebase --abort || true" &&
+	git checkout -B tmp side-with-commit &&
+	test_must_fail git rebase -i master
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'noop interactive rebase does not care about ident' '
+	git checkout -B tmp side-with-commit &&
+	git rebase -i HEAD^
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'fast-forward rebase does not care about ident (preserve)' '
+	git checkout -B tmp side-without-commit &&
+	git rebase -p master
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'non-fast-forward rebase refuses to write commits (preserve)' '
+	test_when_finished "git rebase --abort || true" &&
+	git checkout -B tmp side-with-commit &&
+	test_must_fail git rebase -p master
+'
+
 test_done