`arc` changes my commit messages

[Richard Eisenberg]

Hi all,

Is there a way to put `arc` into a read-only mode?

Frequently while working on a patch, I make several commits, preferring to separate out testing commits from productive work commits and non-productive (whitespace, comments) commits. Sometimes each of these categories are themselves broken into several commits. These commits are *not* my internal workflow. They are intentionally curated by rebasing as I'm ready to publish the patch, as I think the patches are easy to read this way. (Tell me if I'm wrong, here!) I've resolved myself not to use `arc land`, but instead to apply the patch using git.

Yet, when I call `arc diff`, even if I haven't amended my patch during the `arc diff`ing process, the commit message of the tip of my branch is changed, and without telling me. I recently pushed my (tiny, uninteresting) fix to #9692. Luckily, my last commit happened to be the meat, so the amended commit message is still wholly relevant. But, that won't always be the case, and I was surprised to see a Phab-ified commit message appear in the Trac ticket after pushing.

I know I could use more git-ery to restore my old commit message. But is there a way to stop `arc` from doing the message change in the first place?

Thanks!
Richard