Re: pull into dirty working tree

[Bill Lear <rael@zopyra.com>]

On Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 22:21:38 (-0700) Linus Torvalds writes:
>On Wed, 13 Jun 2007, Bill Lear wrote:
>>
>> We have some CVS users who complain that they cannot do a pull
>> into a dirty working tree, as they could under CVS.
>
>Well, a lot of people have told you that the answer is "don't do that", 
>but I actually somewhat disagree.

I have now officially fallen out of my chair.

>I think it might be perfectly fine to allow for a *fast-forward* pull to 
>do a three-way merge on the working tree, assuming the index is clean in 
>the paths that got modified.
>...
>It might make it a bit easier for CVS people to get used to the git model: 
>keep your dirty working tree, and do "git pull" to update it, and fix up 
>any conflicts in the working tree. That's how CVS works - it's a bad 
>model, but it's a model that may be worth supporting just to get people 
>more easily into the _good_ model.

Exactly my desires.  I think it could work reliably, and as they
mature into git users, they will come to appreciate branches.


Bill