All of lore.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Harald Nordgren <haraldnordgren@gmail.com>,
	Yoichi Nakayama <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>,
	"D. Ben Knoble" <ben.knoble@gmail.com>,
	Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>,
	Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH v4] worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 06:35:54 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <pull.2197.v4.git.1786430155244.gitgitgadget@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <pull.2197.git.1786177301832.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

From: Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>

When the user runs 'git worktree add ../foo-dir bar-topic' command
that does not exactly say which remote they want to work with, and
there is no local branch named bar-topic, we try to guess which remote
by passing bar-topic then create a new branch named bar-topic which
tracks the remote branch.

If there are multiple remotes that have branch named bar-topic, we
silently gave up, leaving the variable 'branch' intact.  Then we
entered the conditional clause 'if (!opts.orphan &&
!lookup_commit_reference_by_name(branch))' and triggered "invalid
reference" error.  This error message did not contain enough
information to resolve the issue where the remote could not be
guessed.

To improve the situation, we display a hint and a descriptive error
message and die immediately when multiple matching branches are found.

Signed-off-by: Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
---
    worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2197%2Fyoichi%2Fimprove-worktree-add-error-message-v4
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2197/yoichi/improve-worktree-add-error-message-v4
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2197

Range-diff vs v3:

 1:  1b9364da7e ! 1:  f7c413b588 worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
     @@ Metadata
       ## Commit message ##
          worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
      
     -    When the user runs 'git worktree add x y' command that does not
     -    exactly say which remote they want to work with, and there is no local
     -    branch named y, we try to guess which remote by passing y then create
     -    a new branch named y which tracks the remote branch.
     +    When the user runs 'git worktree add ../foo-dir bar-topic' command
     +    that does not exactly say which remote they want to work with, and
     +    there is no local branch named bar-topic, we try to guess which remote
     +    by passing bar-topic then create a new branch named bar-topic which
     +    tracks the remote branch.
      
     -    If there are multiple remotes that have branch named y, we silently
     -    gave up, leaving the variable branch intact.  This later causes
     -    creating local branch and worktree not happen, and we end up with
     -    passing an non-existing branch to lookup_commit_reference_by_name(),
     -    triggering "invalid reference" error and die.
     +    If there are multiple remotes that have branch named bar-topic, we
     +    silently gave up, leaving the variable 'branch' intact.  Then we
     +    entered the conditional clause 'if (!opts.orphan &&
     +    !lookup_commit_reference_by_name(branch))' and triggered "invalid
     +    reference" error.  This error message did not contain enough
     +    information to resolve the issue where the remote could not be
     +    guessed.
      
     -    To resolve this issue, display a hint and a descriptive error message
     -    and die immediately when multiple mathing branches are found.
     +    To improve the situation, we display a hint and a descriptive error
     +    message and die immediately when multiple matching branches are found.
      
          Signed-off-by: Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
      


 builtin/worktree.c      | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
 t/t2400-worktree-add.sh |  4 ++--
 2 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/builtin/worktree.c b/builtin/worktree.c
index 654d27c3e1..b29c3a3755 100644
--- a/builtin/worktree.c
+++ b/builtin/worktree.c
@@ -64,6 +64,19 @@
 	"\n" \
 	"    git worktree add --orphan %s\n")
 
+#define WORKTREE_ADD_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME_HINT_TEXT \
+	_("Matched multiple remote tracking branches, you can list them by:\n" \
+	"\n" \
+	"    git branch -r --list \"*/%s\"\n" \
+	"\n" \
+	"If you meant to create a worktree from a remote tracking branch on,\n" \
+	"e.g. 'origin', you can do so by:\n" \
+	"\n" \
+	"    git worktree add -b %s %s origin/%s\n" \
+	"\n" \
+	"If you'd like to always prefer some remote, e.g. 'origin',\n" \
+	"consider setting checkout.defaultRemote=origin in your config.")
+
 static const char * const git_worktree_usage[] = {
 	BUILTIN_WORKTREE_ADD_USAGE,
 	BUILTIN_WORKTREE_LIST_USAGE,
@@ -904,10 +917,18 @@ static int add(int ac, const char **av, const char *prefix,
 
 		commit = lookup_commit_reference_by_name(branch);
 		if (!commit) {
-			remote = unique_tracking_name(branch, &oid, NULL);
+			int num_matches = 0;
+			remote = unique_tracking_name(branch, &oid, &num_matches);
 			if (remote) {
 				new_branch = branch;
 				branch = new_branch_to_free = remote;
+			} else if (num_matches > 1) {
+				if (!opts.quiet)
+					advise_if_enabled(ADVICE_CHECKOUT_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME,
+							  WORKTREE_ADD_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME_HINT_TEXT,
+							  branch, branch, path, branch);
+				die(_("'%s' matched multiple (%d) remote tracking branches"),
+				    branch, num_matches);
 			}
 		}
 
diff --git a/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh b/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh
index 87b926728a..5c105cf252 100755
--- a/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh
+++ b/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh
@@ -624,12 +624,12 @@ test_expect_success '"add" <path> <branch> dwims' '
 test_expect_success '"add" <path> <branch> dwims with checkout.defaultRemote' '
 	test_when_finished rm -rf repo_upstream repo_dwim foo &&
 	setup_remote_repo repo_upstream repo_dwim &&
-	git init repo_dwim &&
 	(
 		cd repo_dwim &&
 		git remote add repo_upstream2 ../repo_upstream &&
 		git fetch repo_upstream2 &&
-		test_must_fail git worktree add ../foo foo &&
+		test_must_fail git worktree add ../foo foo 2>error.actual &&
+		test_grep "matched multiple (2) remote tracking branches" error.actual &&
 		git -c checkout.defaultRemote=repo_upstream worktree add ../foo foo &&
 		git status -uno --porcelain >status.actual &&
 		test_must_be_empty status.actual

base-commit: 010afd3166ddc64c9863b1506f12cbcdda0d4ea1
-- 
gitgitgadget

      parent reply	other threads:[~2026-08-11  6:36 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-08-08  8:21 [PATCH] worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-08 17:00 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-08 21:57   ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-09  7:45     ` Harald Nordgren
2026-08-09 18:19       ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-10 10:12         ` Harald Nordgren
2026-08-09 18:17     ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-10 13:04     ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 13:00   ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 13:07 ` D. Ben Knoble
2026-08-10 13:35   ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 15:06     ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-10 21:36   ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 15:07 ` [PATCH v2] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-10 20:55 ` [PATCH v3] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-11  0:03   ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-11  6:31     ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-11  6:35 ` Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget [this message]

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=pull.2197.v4.git.1786430155244.gitgitgadget@gmail.com \
    --to=gitgitgadget@gmail.com \
    --cc=ben.knoble@gmail.com \
    --cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=haraldnordgren@gmail.com \
    --cc=yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.