From: "Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Harald Nordgren <haraldnordgren@gmail.com>,
Yoichi Nakayama <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>,
"D. Ben Knoble" <ben.knoble@gmail.com>,
Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>,
Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH v4] worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 06:35:54 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <pull.2197.v4.git.1786430155244.gitgitgadget@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <pull.2197.git.1786177301832.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
From: Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
When the user runs 'git worktree add ../foo-dir bar-topic' command
that does not exactly say which remote they want to work with, and
there is no local branch named bar-topic, we try to guess which remote
by passing bar-topic then create a new branch named bar-topic which
tracks the remote branch.
If there are multiple remotes that have branch named bar-topic, we
silently gave up, leaving the variable 'branch' intact. Then we
entered the conditional clause 'if (!opts.orphan &&
!lookup_commit_reference_by_name(branch))' and triggered "invalid
reference" error. This error message did not contain enough
information to resolve the issue where the remote could not be
guessed.
To improve the situation, we display a hint and a descriptive error
message and die immediately when multiple matching branches are found.
Signed-off-by: Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
---
worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2197%2Fyoichi%2Fimprove-worktree-add-error-message-v4
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2197/yoichi/improve-worktree-add-error-message-v4
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2197
Range-diff vs v3:
1: 1b9364da7e ! 1: f7c413b588 worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
@@ Metadata
## Commit message ##
worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
- When the user runs 'git worktree add x y' command that does not
- exactly say which remote they want to work with, and there is no local
- branch named y, we try to guess which remote by passing y then create
- a new branch named y which tracks the remote branch.
+ When the user runs 'git worktree add ../foo-dir bar-topic' command
+ that does not exactly say which remote they want to work with, and
+ there is no local branch named bar-topic, we try to guess which remote
+ by passing bar-topic then create a new branch named bar-topic which
+ tracks the remote branch.
- If there are multiple remotes that have branch named y, we silently
- gave up, leaving the variable branch intact. This later causes
- creating local branch and worktree not happen, and we end up with
- passing an non-existing branch to lookup_commit_reference_by_name(),
- triggering "invalid reference" error and die.
+ If there are multiple remotes that have branch named bar-topic, we
+ silently gave up, leaving the variable 'branch' intact. Then we
+ entered the conditional clause 'if (!opts.orphan &&
+ !lookup_commit_reference_by_name(branch))' and triggered "invalid
+ reference" error. This error message did not contain enough
+ information to resolve the issue where the remote could not be
+ guessed.
- To resolve this issue, display a hint and a descriptive error message
- and die immediately when multiple mathing branches are found.
+ To improve the situation, we display a hint and a descriptive error
+ message and die immediately when multiple matching branches are found.
Signed-off-by: Yoichi NAKAYAMA <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
builtin/worktree.c | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
t/t2400-worktree-add.sh | 4 ++--
2 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/builtin/worktree.c b/builtin/worktree.c
index 654d27c3e1..b29c3a3755 100644
--- a/builtin/worktree.c
+++ b/builtin/worktree.c
@@ -64,6 +64,19 @@
"\n" \
" git worktree add --orphan %s\n")
+#define WORKTREE_ADD_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME_HINT_TEXT \
+ _("Matched multiple remote tracking branches, you can list them by:\n" \
+ "\n" \
+ " git branch -r --list \"*/%s\"\n" \
+ "\n" \
+ "If you meant to create a worktree from a remote tracking branch on,\n" \
+ "e.g. 'origin', you can do so by:\n" \
+ "\n" \
+ " git worktree add -b %s %s origin/%s\n" \
+ "\n" \
+ "If you'd like to always prefer some remote, e.g. 'origin',\n" \
+ "consider setting checkout.defaultRemote=origin in your config.")
+
static const char * const git_worktree_usage[] = {
BUILTIN_WORKTREE_ADD_USAGE,
BUILTIN_WORKTREE_LIST_USAGE,
@@ -904,10 +917,18 @@ static int add(int ac, const char **av, const char *prefix,
commit = lookup_commit_reference_by_name(branch);
if (!commit) {
- remote = unique_tracking_name(branch, &oid, NULL);
+ int num_matches = 0;
+ remote = unique_tracking_name(branch, &oid, &num_matches);
if (remote) {
new_branch = branch;
branch = new_branch_to_free = remote;
+ } else if (num_matches > 1) {
+ if (!opts.quiet)
+ advise_if_enabled(ADVICE_CHECKOUT_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME,
+ WORKTREE_ADD_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME_HINT_TEXT,
+ branch, branch, path, branch);
+ die(_("'%s' matched multiple (%d) remote tracking branches"),
+ branch, num_matches);
}
}
diff --git a/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh b/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh
index 87b926728a..5c105cf252 100755
--- a/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh
+++ b/t/t2400-worktree-add.sh
@@ -624,12 +624,12 @@ test_expect_success '"add" <path> <branch> dwims' '
test_expect_success '"add" <path> <branch> dwims with checkout.defaultRemote' '
test_when_finished rm -rf repo_upstream repo_dwim foo &&
setup_remote_repo repo_upstream repo_dwim &&
- git init repo_dwim &&
(
cd repo_dwim &&
git remote add repo_upstream2 ../repo_upstream &&
git fetch repo_upstream2 &&
- test_must_fail git worktree add ../foo foo &&
+ test_must_fail git worktree add ../foo foo 2>error.actual &&
+ test_grep "matched multiple (2) remote tracking branches" error.actual &&
git -c checkout.defaultRemote=repo_upstream worktree add ../foo foo &&
git status -uno --porcelain >status.actual &&
test_must_be_empty status.actual
base-commit: 010afd3166ddc64c9863b1506f12cbcdda0d4ea1
--
gitgitgadget
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-11 6:36 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-08 8:21 [PATCH] worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-08 17:00 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-08 21:57 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-09 7:45 ` Harald Nordgren
2026-08-09 18:19 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-10 10:12 ` Harald Nordgren
2026-08-09 18:17 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-10 13:04 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 13:00 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 13:07 ` D. Ben Knoble
2026-08-10 13:35 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-10 15:06 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-10 21:36 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-11 16:38 ` Ben Knoble
2026-08-10 15:07 ` [PATCH v2] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-10 20:55 ` [PATCH v3] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-11 0:03 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-11 6:31 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-11 6:35 ` Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget [this message]
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