From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Junio C Hamano Subject: Re: Git terminology: remote, add, track, stage, etc. Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:03:45 -0700 Message-ID: <7vaamb2gm6.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> References: <8835ADF9-45E5-4A26-9F7F-A72ECC065BB2@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: Thore Husfeldt , git@vger.kernel.org, Scott Chacon , Jonathan Nieder To: Sverre Rabbelier X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Tue Oct 19 02:04:08 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P7zgU-0008Er-EI for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:04:06 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932900Ab0JSAD7 convert rfc822-to-quoted-printable (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:03:59 -0400 Received: from a-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com ([208.72.237.25]:33338 "EHLO sasl.smtp.pobox.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755306Ab0JSAD7 convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:03:59 -0400 Received: from sasl.smtp.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by a-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BD3B3DF7F9; Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:03:58 -0400 (EDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=to:cc:subject :references:from:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; s=sasl; bh=GC4LAdLIfveS vAbNZFglMOSh7/8=; b=c81IJs8ekAm2VvG/ljyb5VWhl8aKQhuKk8vDjhHU2Cqm l+eWaAYCD59VhlhFIZG+wlcUmQAocbVt/JqgfLsSnQDBGNqraWqvLQ2p0To0qlHv MHrcEmyxuV8jNiXhskYyFAL5SeF+osW7wRhgQNBfbSdswR7D7a5hmwnFZ+ayh4c= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=pobox.com; h=to:cc:subject :references:from:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; q=dns; s=sasl; b=fKv3Aw uaAk+w+1j/ulhNMpQ/GvT0kN9yjPXfM5ePtqo7EDqq1bOAqmjaFYXM88ox//82H0 JWbhnyR2PdqsM5xai3BxM98H2LTSyPwHcJUa7GDdm+DEloLjXABesuI+mvbgo1Ut EthZQcGGXGlia97eUgYlxXVrXZL9agraoQYSU= Received: from a-pb-sasl-quonix. (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by a-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D278DF7ED; Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:03:53 -0400 (EDT) Received: from pobox.com (unknown [76.102.252.155]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by a-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 45757DF7E6; Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:03:47 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: (Sverre Rabbelier's message of "Mon\, 18 Oct 2010 16\:35\:32 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.2 (gnu/linux) X-Pobox-Relay-ID: 5BFBDB7E-DB14-11DF-B21D-030CEE7EF46B-77302942!a-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Sverre Rabbelier writes: >> More radically, I am sure some head scratching would be able to find >> useful terminology for master, origin/master, and origin=E2=80=99s m= aster. I=E2=80=99d >> love to see suggestions. As I said, I admire how wonderfully simple >> and clean this has been implemented, and the documentation, CLI, and >> terminology should reflect that. > > I don't have any objections to changing these terms, but I don't have > any suggestions on what to change them _to_. I do not think debating on changing the terminology is a particularly productive use of our time. Just like Thore was confused by "index, cache, add, stage", we would end up adding yet another lingo that cover the same concept, and the problem is that there is _no way_ older words will be forgotten. But I think the way the concepts are explained and taught by our documentation can and should be improved. For example, as I've written before we use 'tracking' for two quite different purposes, which is a mistake and the source confusion. - A "remote-tracking branch" is "a _thing_ whose purpose is to be used= to track a branch on the remote side", and "fetch" is how you update it= =2E - Sometimes people call a local branch whose purpose is to be used to build on efforts made on a branch on a remote repository as "trackin= g", which is quite incompatible with the above one.