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by d_sem 937 days ago
The key is to define the term "large" in this context. Pull requests size is an artifact of a humans brain ability to process changes. Therefore its best to tailor the content of a PR based on how difficult you think it is for the stakeholders you are merging can understand the change. "large" is more a measure of complexity.

When I make changes to a codebase that very few people are experts in and is generally perceived to be difficult to understand, I make "smaller" pull requests so that the change log is followable and changes easier revert.

As with many things in software development: be pragmatic, think of others, and do the best you can.

2 comments

> When I make changes to a codebase that very few people are experts in and is generally perceived to be difficult to understand,

Not trying to be snarky, genuinely curious, is this a situation you find yourself in very often? Are you describing something while working at a company or in an open-source project?

Yeah I will always advocate for smaller, more easily digestible PRs - but the underlying principle is good old “know your audience.”