Re: "git fetch -p" incorrectly deletes branches

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2017 at 07:04:28AM +0100, Reimar Döffinger wrote:

> Deletes refs/heads/test every second time when run repeatedly:
> 
> $ git fetch -p -v origin master:refs/heads/test
> From https://github.com/git/git
>  * [new branch]          master     -> test
>  = [up to date]          master     -> origin/master
> $ git fetch -p -v origin master:refs/heads/test
> From https://github.com/git/git
>  - [deleted]             (none)     -> test
>  = [up to date]          master     -> test
>  = [up to date]          master     -> origin/master

Hmm. It seems like the problem is that "-p" is saying "the other side
does not have refs/heads/test; we must prune it". But I think it is
probably nonsense to apply pruning to a non-wildcard refspec.


> Also note that this behaviour appears also when fetch.prune=yes
> is set in the config (instead of -p on the command-line),
> which makes it much less obvious and there is no option to turn
> of prune just for that command to work-around this.

There is a separate issue of whether it is sane to apply fetch.prune to
a refspec given on the command line; I can imagine it as surprising, to
say the least.

I think "--no-prune" would disable it, though.

-Peff