From: Jeff King Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:07:02 GMT Subject: [RFC] improve 'bad default revision' message for empty repo Message-ID: <20080305010701.GB20007@sigill.intra.peff.net> In-Reply-To: <3f4fd2640803041351k6debe788xbf5e818951f70146@mail.gmail.com> On Tue, Mar 04, 2008 at 09:51:02PM +0000, Reece Dunn wrote: > > > Consider the following workflow: > > > > > > $ mkdir foo > > > $ cd foo > > > $ git --bare init > > > > > > $ git log > > > fatal: bad default revision 'HEAD' > > > > > > This message is confusing for a newbie. Displaying "no commits" would > > > make more sense here. What do people think of this patch? It feels a little hack-ish to make guesses as to the reasons for a failure, but in my experience an empty repo is the cause of this message in 99% of cases. We could special-case it to HEAD and make a better message, perhaps, but that feels even more hack-ish. --- revision.c | 2 +- 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c index 63bf2c5..847dbc8 100644 --- a/revision.c +++ b/revision.c @@ -1324,7 +1324,7 @@ int setup_revisions(int argc, const char **argv, struct rev_info *revs, const ch struct object *object; unsigned mode; if (get_sha1_with_mode(def, sha1, &mode)) - die("bad default revision '%s'", def); + die("unable to resolve '%s'; do you have any commits on this branch?", def); object = get_reference(revs, def, sha1, 0); add_pending_object_with_mode(revs, object, def, mode); } -- 1.5.4.3.531.ga940.dirty