Re: Git branch bug

[Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>]

Hi,

On Sat, 5 May 2007, Guido Ostkamp wrote:

> > On Sat, 5 May 2007, Guido Ostkamp wrote:
> > 
> > > $ mkdir test
> > > $ cd test
> > > $ git init
> > > Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
> > > $ git branch experimental
> > > fatal: Not a valid object name: 'master'.
> > > 
> > > So, it seems it is not possible to create a named branch on an empty
> > > repository.
> > 
> > Actually, it is not possible to branch from a non-existing branch. So,
> > this is somewhat expected from my POV.
> 
> From a git beginners point of view, I would expect that the 'master' 
> branch is automatically created when performing the 'git init'. Why is 
> this not the case?

Well, one side of the branch _is_ created. But you have to provide initial 
content, to make it a proper branch, from which you can actually branch 
off.

Having said that, and having read Daniels mail, I agree that this 
behaviour should be changed, along with the behaviour of "git checkout -b 
<branch>" in a fresh repo.

It might be the illogical thing, to allow branching of a 
yet-to-be-initialised branch, but it does not hurt either.

Ciao,
Dscho