Git Notes on Branches

Git Notes on Branches

[Joshua Shrader]

I'm wondering if there is a way to (or a reason that would prevent one
from implementing a feature that allows one to) associate a note with
a branch, rather than a specific object.  It seems like a notes object
contains a reference to the object that it annotates:

Annotate 4bd93734af...

Rather than forcing this to be a SHA1, can the same approaches as
taken with HEAD be employed?  That is, allow it to be either an object
ID, or a local branch?

This would essentially define a new use case for notes.  Rather than
just being used to annotate objects, they could be used to describe a
feature branch or a bug fix, for example.  Then, when a release is
created (from, say, master), a "git branches --merged" will show all
merged branches.  Assuming the workflow is to develop on well-defined
branches, if each of these branches had a description in an attached
note, created Release Notes would be a piece of cake.  Add a
description via "git notes add feat-branch-2" that you want to show up
in the Release Notes once the branch is re-integrated.

I see a potential problem when working remotely and trying to push the
note to origin, but I don't think its insurmountable.

Thoughts?

Josh

Re: Git Notes on Branches

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi Joshua,

Joshua Shrader wrote:

> I'm wondering if there is a way to (or a reason that would prevent one
> from implementing a feature that allows one to) associate a note with
> a branch, rather than a specific object.

Except for the word “note”, I think your suggestion does not have
anything to do with git notes at all. :)

Special support in gitweb, ‘git branch’, and so on for a branch with
files named after branches and giving descriptions would seem sane
to me.

Here’s something similar for inspiration:

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/33528/focus=33563

Good luck,
Jonathan