Re: [PATCH 1/8] push: change push to fail if short ref name does not exist

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Steffen Prohaska <prohaska@zib.de> writes:

> You can use a branch's shortname to push it. Push used to create
> the branch on the remote side if it did not yet exist. If you
> specified the wrong branch accidentally it was created. A safety
> valve that pushes only existing branches may help to avoid
> errors.

I do not agree with this change.

If you misspelled the branch name (by the way, it is not a
"shortname", but what follows refs/heads/ is _the_ name of the
branch) "frotz" as "frtoz", and if a branch with the misspelled
name did _not_ exist locally, it would fail, with or without
this change, which is a good thing.

But if you named "nitfol" that exists locally when you meant to
push "frotz" out, if "nitfol" remotely existed, we will push
that anyway by mistake, even with this change.  It will prevent
the push only when "nitfol" did not happen to exist at the
remote side.

Earlier there was a discussion to introduce an optional
configuration that makes "git push" without any parameter to
push only the current branch out, in order to help people who
work with shared remote central repository.  That might be a
better alternative to avoid pushing out wrong branch by
mistake.  That approach would also make your 8/8 unnecessary.