{"thread":{"id":"21305","subject":"Re: Feature request: Store comments on branches","startedAt":"2009-10-21T13:37:03Z","lastAt":"2009-10-21T15:05:11Z","messageCount":6,"participants":["Thomas Adam","Patrick Schoenfeld","Howard Miller","B Smith-Mannschott","Jeff King","Bill Lear"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"125598","messageId":"20091021133702.GA470@lisa","threadId":"21305","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"Feature request: Store comments on branches","fromName":"Patrick Schoenfeld","fromEmail":"schoenfeld@debian.org","sentAt":"2009-10-21T13:37:03Z","receivedAt":"2009-10-21T13:37:03Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"schoenfeld@debian.org","avatar":null},"body":"Hi,\n\nI regulary work with various branches, that I call by the number\nof an associated bug tracking / support tracking number. That\nmakes it clear to which ticket a given branch belongs.\nIn this case I would find it very useful, if I could associate\nshort comments with a branch, which would be shown when\ndoing a 'git branch'. This way I could see what this branch\nabout, without looking up the ticket information.\n\nObvious the workaround is to name the branches different,\nbut this is sometimes not convenient and may result in quiet\nlong branch names.\n\nWhat do others think about this? Would this be useful\nfor others, too?\n\nBest Regards,\nPatrick\n"},{"id":"125596","messageId":"18071eea0910210646l41f18deam8c75f1218df7e25a@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"21305","inReplyTo":"20091021133702.GA470@lisa","subject":"Re: Feature request: Store comments on branches","fromName":"Thomas Adam","fromEmail":"thomas.adam22@gmail.com","sentAt":"2009-10-21T13:46:19Z","receivedAt":"2009-10-21T13:46:19Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"thomas.adam22@gmail.com","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/137f9858bc6bfd5b2f743aefd988c81ce0cbd306248889df80e269519cfc8741?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"2009/10/21 Patrick Schoenfeld :\n> What do others think about this? Would this be useful\n> for others, too?\n\nThis feature is already being worked on as \"git notes\" -- see the \"pu\"\nbranch, I think it's still in there, unless it has graduated to next;\nI forget now.\n\n-- Thomas Adam\n"},{"id":"125599","messageId":"26ae428a0910210648l11751185mbccbf53f3d467de2@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"21305","inReplyTo":"20091021133702.GA470@lisa","subject":"Re: Feature request: Store comments on branches","fromName":"Howard Miller","fromEmail":"howard@e-learndesign.co.uk","sentAt":"2009-10-21T13:48:20Z","receivedAt":"2009-10-21T13:48:20Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"howard@e-learndesign.co.uk","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/ddb66c6a4a077e52b823ac5b04f33ab927cb90e2ab1eafedaeba07b1920bb99e?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"2009/10/21 Patrick Schoenfeld :\n> Hi,\n>\n> I regulary work with various branches, that I call by the number\n> of an associated bug tracking / support tracking number. That\n> makes it clear to which ticket a given branch belongs.\n> In this case I would find it very useful, if I could associate\n> short comments with a branch, which would be shown when\n> doing a 'git branch'. This way I could see what this branch\n> about, without looking up the ticket information.\n>\n> Obvious the workaround is to name the branches different,\n> but this is sometimes not convenient and may result in quiet\n> long branch names.\n>\n> What do others think about this? Would this be useful\n> for others, too?\n\nDefinitely +1.\n\nEven on a much more simplistic level (and speaking as a relative\nnewbie) I feel it's an important feature missing. It's terribly easy\nin the fog of working on several different projects to remember what\nall the branches really are. It is just human nature that you think it\nmakes perfect sense at the time but in a couple of weeks time you\ncan't find the branch you want from three or four similar ones. A\ncomments field for branches would be very helpful.\n\nHoward\n"},{"id":"125601","messageId":"28c656e20910210656m5ad597b9h7668e33eeb86b096@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"21305","inReplyTo":"18071eea0910210646l41f18deam8c75f1218df7e25a@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: Feature request: Store comments on branches","fromName":"B Smith-Mannschott","fromEmail":"bsmith.occs@gmail.com","sentAt":"2009-10-21T13:56:51Z","receivedAt":"2009-10-21T13:56:51Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"bsmith.occs@gmail.com","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/46449e07c27bb8a30e4d50c08859f7210d47f6e84526b0a3b903641231dfc1bd?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 15:46, Thomas Adam wrote:\n> 2009/10/21 Patrick Schoenfeld :\n>> What do others think about this? Would this be useful\n>> for others, too?\n>\n> This feature is already being worked on as \"git notes\" -- see the \"pu\"\n> branch, I think it's still in there, unless it has graduated to next;\n> I forget now.\n\nReally? I was under the impression that the nodes were meant to\nannotate commits, or more generally things with SHA-1 IDs. (commits,\ntress, blobs). The SHA-1 ID a branch uses to refer to its HEAD commit\nchanges with every commit, and the branch itself doesn't have an ID,\njust a name.\n\n// Ben\n"},{"id":"125602","messageId":"20091021141352.GA24230@coredump.intra.peff.net","threadId":"21305","inReplyTo":"28c656e20910210656m5ad597b9h7668e33eeb86b096@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: Feature request: Store comments on branches","fromName":"Jeff King","fromEmail":"peff@peff.net","sentAt":"2009-10-21T14:13:52Z","receivedAt":"2009-10-21T14:13:52Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"peff@peff.net","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/45925?v=4"},"body":"On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 03:56:51PM +0200, B Smith-Mannschott wrote:\n\n> >> What do others think about this? Would this be useful\n> >> for others, too?\n> >\n> > This feature is already being worked on as \"git notes\" -- see the \"pu\"\n> > branch, I think it's still in there, unless it has graduated to next;\n> > I forget now.\n> \n> Really? I was under the impression that the nodes were meant to\n> annotate commits, or more generally things with SHA-1 IDs. (commits,\n> tress, blobs). The SHA-1 ID a branch uses to refer to its HEAD commit\n> changes with every commit, and the branch itself doesn't have an ID,\n> just a name.\n\nYes, I think you are right. If I understand the OP, he really just wants\nto annotate the refs themselves, not the commits they point to. So you\ncould probably get away with setting a \"branch.$name.description\" config\nvariable and then showing it during \"git branch\". The downside of such a\nscheme is that it is purely local -- there's no way of pushing or\npulling your descriptions (which is maybe a feature, if you are thinking\nof the descriptions as something only for you yourself to see).\n\nA related technique is to maintain a separate meta repository which has\na list of branches, their status, etc. This is what Junio does with the\n'todo' branch of git.git. The advantage is that it is fully version\ncontrolled, and you can do much more than just set descriptions (e.g.,\n'todo' also has scripts for maintaining the list of topic branches,\ncalculating branch dependencies, building the pu branch, etc). The\ndisadvantage is that it's a lot more work to set up and maintain.\n\n-Peff\n"},{"id":"125607","messageId":"19167.8999.927157.455014@lisa.zopyra.com","threadId":"21305","inReplyTo":"20091021133702.GA470@lisa","subject":"Re: Feature request: Store comments on branches","fromName":"Bill Lear","fromEmail":"rael@zopyra.com","sentAt":"2009-10-21T15:05:11Z","receivedAt":"2009-10-21T15:05:11Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"rael@zopyra.com","avatar":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/c4f2d2790ca3828d3b4e7dfebabf61d2fe94fd82fa49cdac2a5295dd2d46a874?d=mp&s=160"},"body":"On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 15:37:03 (+0200) Patrick Schoenfeld writes:\n>Hi,\n>\n>I regulary work with various branches, that I call by the number\n>of an associated bug tracking / support tracking number. That\n>makes it clear to which ticket a given branch belongs.\n>In this case I would find it very useful, if I could associate\n>short comments with a branch, which would be shown when\n>doing a 'git branch'. This way I could see what this branch\n>about, without looking up the ticket information.\n>\n>Obvious the workaround is to name the branches different,\n>but this is sometimes not convenient and may result in quiet\n>long branch names.\n\nFor now, we do just this. We use Jira for bug reporting. When we\ncreate a new Jira bug, we use the Jira Id as the base and then tack on\na short suffix:\n\n% git checkout -b ADM-417_service_deploy_race_condition\n\nWe are also working on tools that would, among other things, obviate\nthis. For example:\n\n% git branch\n* ADM-417\nADM-312\nmaster\n\n% jira describe\nADM-417: Service deployments have logging race condition on first start\n\n% jira describe -l ADM-312\nADM-312: Portal permissions set incorrectly for WEP users\nDescription: The portal permissions get whacked whenever ...\nAssigned To: John Smith \nStatus: In Progress\n[...]\n\nThe 'jira' command just connects to our Jira server and performs\nactions directly on the Jira server for current or whichever branch,\netc.\n\n\nBill\n"}]}