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From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
To: Nicolas Pitre <nico@fluxnic.net>
Cc: Sverre Rabbelier <srabbelier@gmail.com>,
	Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>,
	Git List <git@vger.kernel.org>, Ron1 <ron1@flownet.com>,
	Jacob Helwig <jacob.helwig@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: master^ is not a local branch -- huh?!?
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:59:57 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20100130085957.GA20112@coredump.intra.peff.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1001291641200.1681@xanadu.home>

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 04:51:18PM -0500, Nicolas Pitre wrote:

> > Using a detached head is a more advanced feature than wanting to
> > checkout a remote branch locally, creating a local tracking branch. As
> > such, 'git checkout origin/topic' now means the same as 'git checkout
> > -t origin/topic', and you can get the old behavior back by doing 'git
> > checkout origin/topic^0'.
> 
> What purpose does this "feature" serve?  Making sure people remain 
> stupid and get even more confused when the special dwimery doesn't work 
> because they don't know the difference between a local branch and a 
> remote tracking branch?
> 
> And now people will be left wondering why after a fetch they don't get 
> the latest stuff when they do "git checkout topic" again.  Is this any 
> better?

I am entering the discussion a bit late, and things have moved on from
this point, but I wanted to mention that I have in the past made the
same argument that you have in your second paragraph (that you leave
users _more_ confused after a fetch), but somebody (I think Jay) managed
to convince me otherwise.

The saving feature is that we now print out the symmetric difference
information between a branch and its upstream during checkout. So the
user experience looks like:

  $ git checkout topic
  Branch topic set up to track remote branch topic from origin.
  Switched to a new branch 'topic'

  ... time passes ...

  $ git fetch
  ...
     9f137a4..22ac6a6  topic      -> origin/topic

  $ git checkout topic
  Switched to branch 'topic'
  Your branch is behind 'origin/topic' by 6 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.

So I think it is not quite as bad as at least I had originally thought.
There are still a few rough edges, though:

  1. If I stay on the 'topic' branch and run "git fetch", then I don't
     see the checkout message. If I don't understand that a local branch
     has been created, I might expect the new changes to be present. But
     they're not. If I do a pull instead, it does "just work", even if I
     am clueless about the local branch.

     I wonder if a "fetch" which updates the upstream branch of the
     current HEAD should print something like the "Your branch is
     behind..." message.

  2. If I am clueless that the local branch exists, I can see that there
     are new changes that I can "fast forward". But if I am clueless
     about local branches, do I know that means I need to run "git merge
     origin/topic"?  However, I can't think of an improved message that
     would make the situation clear without adding a bunch of annoying
     text.

-Peff

  parent reply	other threads:[~2010-01-30  9:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 118+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-01-29 20:20 master^ is not a local branch -- huh?!? Ron1
2010-01-29 20:27 ` Jacob Helwig
2010-01-29 20:35   ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 20:38     ` Jacob Helwig
2010-01-29 20:48     ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 20:56       ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:09         ` [PATCH] checkout: warn about 'branch name' rather than 'local branch' Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:19           ` [PATCH] checkout: Fix test for s/local branch/branch name/ change Jacob Helwig
2010-01-29 21:20             ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:40           ` [PATCH] checkout: warn about 'branch name' rather than 'local branch' Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-29 21:50             ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 21:42           ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 21:45             ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:35         ` master^ is not a local branch -- huh?!? Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 21:20       ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-29 21:21         ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:29           ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-29 21:32             ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:51               ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-29 21:58                 ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 22:00                   ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 22:34                   ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-29 22:39                     ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 22:46                       ` Jacob Helwig
2010-01-29 23:43                       ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  0:14                         ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  0:18                           ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-30  0:29                             ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  0:35                               ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-30  0:38                               ` Michael Witten
2010-01-30  0:39                               ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  1:01                               ` Mark Lodato
2010-01-30  1:22                                 ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  2:38                                   ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  2:59                                     ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  3:26                                       ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  4:03                                         ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  5:06                                           ` Jay Soffian
2010-01-30  5:09                                         ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  4:52                                       ` Jay Soffian
2010-01-30  5:15                                         ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  5:21                                           ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  6:25                                             ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30 18:25                                               ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  5:45                                           ` Jay Soffian
2010-01-30  5:18                                         ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  6:23                                         ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  2:40                                   ` Mark Lodato
2010-01-30  3:11                                     ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  3:59                                       ` Mark Lodato
2010-01-30  4:39                                         ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  5:05                                           ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  5:11                                             ` Jay Soffian
2010-01-30  5:25                                               ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-30  5:53                                           ` Mark Lodato
2010-01-30  6:03                                           ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  8:59                 ` Jeff King [this message]
2010-01-30 18:40                   ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 23:16               ` A Large Angry SCM
2010-01-29 21:49         ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  2:13         ` Johannes Schindelin
2010-01-30  3:15           ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-01-29 20:35   ` Johannes Schindelin
2010-01-29 21:16     ` Ron1
2010-01-29 21:25       ` Jacob Helwig
2010-01-29 21:43         ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 21:59           ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 22:18             ` Ron Garret
2010-01-31  7:32     ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 20:32 ` Octavio Alvarez
2010-01-29 21:34   ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 22:32     ` Octavio Alvarez
2010-01-29 22:47       ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 23:05         ` Octavio Alvarez
2010-01-29 23:12         ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 23:30           ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 23:28         ` Julian Phillips
2010-01-30  0:14           ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  0:18             ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30 19:02               ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30 19:24                 ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 20:36 ` Scott R. Godin
2010-01-29 21:24   ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 21:28     ` Sverre Rabbelier
2010-01-29 21:40       ` Ron Garret
2010-01-29 21:54       ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-29 22:12         ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  0:33           ` Michael Witten
2010-01-30  3:06             ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  6:16               ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  6:45                 ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  7:31                   ` Ron Garret
2010-01-30  8:02                     ` Junio C Hamano
2010-01-30  8:56                       ` Ron Garret
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2010-02-01 11:52 Steve Diver
2010-02-01 17:38 ` Junio C Hamano
2010-02-01 17:58   ` Sergei Organov
2010-02-01 22:52     ` Ron Garret
2010-02-01 23:01       ` Petr Baudis
2010-02-01 23:25       ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-02-01 23:37       ` Junio C Hamano
2010-02-01 23:56         ` Ron Garret
2010-02-02  0:15           ` Petr Baudis
2010-02-02  0:45             ` Ron Garret
2010-02-02  0:53               ` Junio C Hamano
2010-02-02  1:12                 ` Ron Garret
2010-02-02 19:19                   ` J. Bruce Fields
2010-02-02 22:04                     ` Ron Garret
2010-02-03 18:27                       ` J. Bruce Fields
2010-02-02  4:05               ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-02-02  5:23                 ` Ron Garret
2010-02-02  5:43                   ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-02-02 21:07                   ` tytso
2010-02-02  0:26           ` Junio C Hamano
2010-02-02  0:21       ` Junio C Hamano
2010-02-01 18:12   ` Nicolas Pitre
2010-02-01 18:27     ` Jay Soffian
2010-02-01 22:34     ` Steve Diver

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