Two newbie question: "dead" branches and merging after cherry-pick.

[Romano Giannetti <romano@dea.icai.upcomillas.es>]

Hi,

   this is a "really-newbie-question"...  git is the first SCM that I try to
   use, and I am really fascinated with it. I develop my software on three
   different PC and git solves all my problems of keeping uptodate with
   myself in a really nice way. 

   I have a couple of doubts that probably are at the very silly level but... 
   Here I go: 

        - I use to work on a topic branch to make test, try solutions for
        bugs, etc. Say I am done with the branch "test-bill-idea". I decide
        it's a dead branch, so that I do not want to see it in day-by-day
        work (git branch, basically), but I do not want to loose it. If I
        delete the branch I will loose all its commit at the next prune,
        correct? There is a way to maintain it as a dead or hidden branch,
        shown for example just by gitk --all? If I tag the tip of the
        branch, and then delete .git/refs/head/test-bill-idea, will the
        "dead branch commits" be preserved by next prune(s)? 

        - Easier: suppose I cheery-picked "abababab" from branch "testing"
        to master branch. What will happen if later I decide to merge
        all "testing" to master branch? I will have a merge conflict (trying
        to apply two times the same fix) or not? 

   Thank you very much for your time! Have a nice week end,

         Romano   

   
-- 
Romano Giannetti             -  Univ. Pontificia Comillas (Madrid, Spain)
Electronic Engineer - phone +34 915 422 800 ext 2416  fax +34 915 596 569
http://www.dea.icai.upcomillas.es/romano/