Add an option to choose oldest associated PR with a commit vs newest

[ian-h-chamberlain]

• GitLens Version: v12.0.4
• Git Version: 2.32.0

• VSCode Version: 1.65.2; c722ca6c7eed3d7987c0d5c3df5c45f6b15e77d1; x64
• OS Version: macOS 11.6.2

First, let me set some context – my organization maintains a number of active branches for backporting fixes to older versions of software. In most cases, the fix is delivered to an old branch, then merged forward in a later pull request. I believe this is part of the root cause of the problem.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Find a commit that is associated with multiple GitHub pull requests – perhaps a cherry-pick from one branch to another or something like that
2. Open File At Revision From... and choose the branch the first PR was originally targeted to (maybe not necessary? just how I reproduce it)
3. Hover on line blame and observe the via PR# message.

In my case, the resulting PR number seemed to the be the second-lowest numbered PR associated with the commit, but that might just be change. I think it would be preferable to use the lowest-numbered PR associated with the commit, although perhaps others would prefer something else, so maybe this would need to be configurable if there is a use-case for higher numbered PRs?

Alternatively, show all the PRs associated with a commit, but that seems more difficult to integrate in the UI etc., and is probably not very helpful anyway.

Unfortunately, the repo I saw this in is private, but please let me know if there's anything else I can provide to help. If necessary I can probably reproduce in a new public repository as well.

[eamodio]

GitLens currently asks GitHub for the two most recently updated PRs, and if there is more than one result, then it sorts them first by matching repo owner (to deal with PRs on forks), then open PRs first, and then by updated date/time.

The goal is to return the most recently updated PR. Are you looking for the oldest PR?

[ian-h-chamberlain]

Ok, sounds like some though has been put into it already, so maybe my opinion / use case is a bit unusual.

The goal is to return the most recently updated PR. Are you looking for the oldest PR?

Yeah, I guess so – usually, I'm interested in reading the PR description and/or finding related issues, which in my org are found most easily by the original (oldest) PR where the change was first proposed + merged.

Also worth noting is that, in cases where I'm using Open File At Revision From... for an old branch, then opening the PR, the most recently updated PR may not even be targeted to that branch, making it irrelevant (and I would rather see the PR where it was delivered to the selected branch instead).

Based on your description of the issue, it sounds like maybe a configuration option would make sense, since perhaps my preferred heuristic for linking a PR is different from other users'.

[eamodio]

Interesting -- I'll have to look a bit more into this scenario to better understand what I can do here. I'm not sure I can reasonably tell the "branch" when using the Open File At Revision From... (since I think that context will already be lost since it will now be a specific sha). GitLens currently just asking GitHub to give me the PRs associated with a commit sha.

But as for picking the oldest vs the newest, I think it makes sense to offer an option here.