From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
To: "Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Harald Nordgren <haraldnordgren@gmail.com>,
Yoichi Nakayama <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>,
"D. Ben Knoble" <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v6 3/3] worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2026 20:54:24 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <xmqqa4qgruvj.fsf@gitster.g> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <dcb84a69a6a65085d468a0a212cea0281605c5d0.1787259838.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com> (Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget's message of "Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:03:58 +0000")
"Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:
> 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>
> ---
> builtin/worktree.c | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> t/t2400-worktree-add.sh | 4 ++--
> 2 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/builtin/worktree.c b/builtin/worktree.c
> index 22c8e5e131..8286c283e0 100644
> --- a/builtin/worktree.c
> +++ b/builtin/worktree.c
> @@ -788,6 +788,25 @@ static char *dwim_branch(const char *path, char **new_branch)
> return NULL;
> }
>
> +static void advise_disambiguating_remotes(const char *path, const char *branch,
> + const struct string_list *matched_remote_names)
> +{
> + struct string_list_item *item;
> +
> + advise(_("Branches with the same name appears in multiple remotes:"));
The subject "Branches" calls for plural verb "appear" (not
"appears"). The same issue appears in [PATCH 2/3].
> if (!commit) {
> - remote = unique_tracking_name(branch, &oid, NULL, NULL);
> + char *remote;
> + int num_matches = 0;
> + struct string_list matched_remote_names = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
> +
> + remote = unique_tracking_name(branch, &oid, &num_matches,
> + &matched_remote_names);
> if (remote) {
> new_branch = branch;
> branch = new_branch_to_free = remote;
> + } else if (num_matches > 1) {
> + if (!opts.quiet &&
> + advice_enabled(ADVICE_CHECKOUT_AMBIGUOUS_REMOTE_BRANCH_NAME))
> + advise_disambiguating_remotes(path, branch,
> + &matched_remote_names);
> + die(_("'%s' matched multiple (%d) remote tracking branches"),
> + branch, num_matches);
> }
> + string_list_clear(&matched_remote_names, 0);
> }
This appears inside "} else if (ac == 2) {" to catch an invocation
like
git worktree add ../over-there topic-branch
where the origin of topic-branch is ambiguous (in other words,
appears in multiple remotes). But don't we have the same issue for
1 argument case that appears just above this (ac == 2) case that
handles
git worktree add ../topic-branch
invocation? The code reads like:
} else if (ac < 2) {
/* DWIM: Guess branch name from path. */
char *s = dwim_branch(path, &new_branch_to_free);
if (s)
branch = branch_to_free = s;
new_branch = new_branch_to_free;
/* DWIM: Infer --orphan when repo has no refs. */
opts.orphan = (!s) && dwim_orphan(&opts, !!opt_track, 1);
} else if (ac == 2) {
where the branch name "topic-branch" is guessed from the path by
calling dwim_branch(), and we would get NULL in s. branch is left
as-is, so it becomes "HEAD" that was assigned much earlier in the
same function.
branch = ac < 2 ? "HEAD" : av[1];
We would create a new directory in ../topic-branch next door, and
then which branch would we check out? Would dwim_orphan() kick in?
Perhaps we want to update that code path to disambiguate the same way?
> 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
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-21 3:54 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 33+ 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
2026-08-12 13:14 ` Yoichi Nakayama
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
2026-08-12 19:22 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-15 4:36 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-11 6:35 ` [PATCH v4] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-19 12:50 ` [PATCH v5 0/2] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-19 12:50 ` [PATCH v5 1/2] checkout: " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-19 22:54 ` D. Ben Knoble
2026-08-20 2:18 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-20 15:41 ` Yoichi Nakayama
2026-08-19 12:50 ` [PATCH v5 2/2] worktree add: " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-20 21:03 ` [PATCH v6 0/3] " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-20 21:03 ` [PATCH v6 1/3] checkout: extract function to display advice for ambiguous remotes Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-20 21:03 ` [PATCH v6 2/3] checkout: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-20 21:03 ` [PATCH v6 3/3] worktree add: " Yoichi NAKAYAMA via GitGitGadget
2026-08-21 3:54 ` Junio C Hamano [this message]
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=xmqqa4qgruvj.fsf@gitster.g \
--to=gitster@pobox.com \
--cc=ben.knoble@gmail.com \
--cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=gitgitgadget@gmail.com \
--cc=haraldnordgren@gmail.com \
--cc=yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox