Re: branch --set-upstream-to unexpectedly fails with "starting point ... is no branch"
On 23 Nov 2015, at 19:59, Marc Strapetz <marc.strapetz@syntevo.com> wrote:
Show 21 quoted lines
> On 23.11.2015 18:04, Carlos Martín Nieto wrote:
>> Hello Mark,
>>
>> On 23 Nov 2015, at 12:04, Marc Strapetz <marc.strapetz@syntevo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> There is a strange "branch --set-upstream-to" failure for "clones" which haven't been created using "git clone" but constructed using "git init", "git remote add" and "git fetch".
>>>
>>> Following script first creates a "main" repository and then constructs the clone. Finally, in the clone branches origin/1 and origin/2 will be present, however it's not possible to invoke "git branch --set-upstream-to" for origin/2 (it works fine for origin/1).
>>>
>>> I guess the behavior is related to following line in .git/config:
>>>
>>> fetch = refs/heads/1:refs/remotes/origin/1
>>>
>>> However, I don't understand what's the problem for Git here? Definitely the error "starting point 'origin/2' is not a branch" is wrong.
>>>
>>
>> That is indeed the issue. The configuration which is stored in the configuration is a remote+branch pair. If there is no fetch refspec configured which would create the ‘origin/2’ remote-tracking branch, the command does not know which remote and branch that would correspond to.
>
> Thanks, Carlos, I understand now.
>
> My goal is to have a clone which will only fetch specific branches, so I guess I have to stick with "refs/heads/1:refs/remotes/origin/1" for the beginning and for every new branch X add another "refs/heads/X:refs/remotes/origin/X"? Or is there a better way?
If you want fine-grained control over what gets downloaded, you’ll need to restrict either the configured refspecs or the ones which git-fetch gets.
You can configure the individual refspecs so a ‘git fetch’ call will download the ones you want, giving you the issue you mention here; or you can configure the default refspec, but always pass explicit instructions to git-fetch, like ‘git fetch refs/heads/1 refs/heads/2’. Newer git versions (past 1.9.3 I think) will update the remote-tracking bracnhes when you do it this way.
Both of these are annoying in their own way. The second way might be preferable if the fetching is done by a script. But if you absent-mindedly run a lone ‘git fetch’, then you’ll download all branches.
Cheers,
cmn
Carlos Martín Nieto <cmn@dwim.me>