Re: setting up tracking on push

[Jay Soffian <jaysoffian@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 7:09 PM, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 04:26:03PM -0400, Marc Branchaud wrote:
>
>> It would be good if the branch command allowed modification of a
>> branch's properties.  At the very least, branch-creation commands like
>> "git branch --track foobranch origin/master" could offer to modify if
>> the branch already exists, instead of just quitting.
>
> I agree that it would be nice if an interface could be made around
> "branch --track". However, the problem with
>
>  git branch --track foobranch origin/master
>
> is that it does two things: it sets up tracking, and it resets the
> foobranch ref. Right now we complain if foobranch already exists. We
> have a "-f" to override. But what you want to say is "set foobranch to
> track origin/master, but _don't_ actually reset where it points". And I
> don't see an intuitive way of doing that with that syntax. If you don't
> require "-f", then you are silently ignoring half of what the user asked
> you to do.

Maybe a new switch, say -u for update:

-u --track [<branch>] <upstream>

Update tracking information for an existing branch. <branch> is
optional and defaults to the current branch. <upstream> is the branch
you wish to track, e.g. origin/master; normally <upstream> is a remote
tracking branch, but specifying a local branch is valid as well.

-u --no-track [<branch>]

Remove tracking information for an existing branch. <branch> is
optional and defaults to the current branch.

j.