Re: Dropping '+' from fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*?

[Johannes Sixt <j.sixt@viscovery.net>]

Am 9/2/2011 2:00, schrieb Jeff King:
> Right now, I think of it as a local cache for whatever the remote side
> has. In other words, a way of separating the network-fetching parts of
> the workflow from the local parts.

This is also my interpretation. For this reason, I don't think a change is
necessary.

> So I consider that a downside, because it's extra work for the user[1].
> What are the upsides?
> 
> Is this about preventing workflow-related mistakes where people
> accidentally merge in rebased commits, creating annoying shadow
> histories?
> 
> Is it about preventing malicious rewinds from infecting downstream
> repositories?

All good questions to ask.

> [1] What I really don't like is that cloning git.git is no longer:
> 
>       git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
> 
>     which is a minimal as it can be, but becomes:
> 
>       git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
>       cd git
>       git config --add remote.origin.fetch +refs/heads/pu:refs/remotes/origin/pu
> 
>     It's not that my fingers are too tired to do all that typing, but
>     rather that the first set of instructions is very easy to explain,
>     and the second one is full of magic and head-scratching about why
>     git isn't handling this magic itself.

Absolutely.

>     It would be considerably nicer if the server had some way of saying
>     "I expect this branch to be rewound". Which has been discussed off
>     and on over the years, as I recall.

So, if such a feature were available, wouldn't it be nicer if the initial
clone set up the refspec like this:

  [remote "origin"]
        url = git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
        fetch = refs/heads/maint:refs/remotes/origin/maint
        fetch = refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

i.e., the non-wildcard refspec are about which branches are *not* expected
to be rewound rather than the other way around.

-- Hannes