From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Kastrup Subject: Re: Terminology question about remote branches. Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:09:59 +0200 Message-ID: <85ps226mrc.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> References: <854pjfin68.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <7v8x8qfnev.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Junio C Hamano , git@vger.kernel.org To: Julian Phillips X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sun Aug 05 17:10:09 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IHhk8-0001Mi-Oo for gcvg-git@gmane.org; Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:10:09 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755248AbXHEPKF (ORCPT ); Sun, 5 Aug 2007 11:10:05 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1755163AbXHEPKE (ORCPT ); Sun, 5 Aug 2007 11:10:04 -0400 Received: from mail-in-05.arcor-online.net ([151.189.21.45]:53677 "EHLO mail-in-05.arcor-online.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755107AbXHEPKD (ORCPT ); Sun, 5 Aug 2007 11:10:03 -0400 Received: from mail-in-04-z2.arcor-online.net (mail-in-04-z2.arcor-online.net [151.189.8.16]) by mail-in-05.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 49DA918B4C9; Sun, 5 Aug 2007 17:10:01 +0200 (CEST) Received: from mail-in-10.arcor-online.net (mail-in-10.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.50]) by mail-in-04-z2.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 36F15ABE0E; Sun, 5 Aug 2007 17:10:01 +0200 (CEST) Received: from lola.goethe.zz (dslb-084-061-057-031.pools.arcor-ip.net [84.61.57.31]) by mail-in-10.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id E25FC2351A3; Sun, 5 Aug 2007 17:10:00 +0200 (CEST) Received: by lola.goethe.zz (Postfix, from userid 1002) id D8A4C1C3D500; Sun, 5 Aug 2007 17:09:59 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: (Julian Phillips's message of "Sun\, 5 Aug 2007 15\:23\:12 +0100 \(BST\)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1.50 (gnu/linux) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.91.1/3862/Sun Aug 5 15:38:34 2007 on mail-in-10.arcor-online.net X-Virus-Status: Clean Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Julian Phillips writes: > On Sun, 5 Aug 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote: >> >> I think we have a brief discussion on #git before you brought >> this up ;-) >> >> - local branches -- we know what they are. >> >> - remote tracking branches -- refs that appear in refs/remotes/ >> in the current world order; they are updated only by copying >> the corresponding local branches at the remote site, and are >> meant to "keep track of what _they_ are doing". In olden >> days before 1.5.0 with non separate remote layout, >> 'refs/heads/origin' branch, and all the non default branches, >> were treated this way as well. You were not supposed to make >> commit on them (because of the above "keep track of" reason), >> and having them under refs/heads were too confusing, which >> was the reason the separate remote layout was invented. >> >> You can have a local branch that is created by forking off of a >> remote tracking branch, with the intention to "build on top" of >> the corresponding remote tracking brach. You can create such a >> branch and mark it as such with --track option introduced in >> v1.5.1 timeperiod. This is a relatively new concept, but many >> people find it useful. We do not have the official term to call >> this concept, and some people have misused the term "remote >> tracking branches" to describe this, which made things very >> confusing. >> >> We would need an official terminology for it. > > Following was mentioned earlier in this thread ... could we use that? > > tracking branch: > ref always points at a commit from the remote repo branch > > following branch: > ref either points at a commit from the remote repo branch, or a > local commit with a commit from the remote repo branch in the history > > perhaps? An auto-merging branch? The term is somewhat more technical so that people are less likely to think it just a colloquial alternative expression for "tracking". -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum