Re: Problem with git filter-branch

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Oct 26, 2008, 05:07 UTC
Message-ID: <20081026050706.GC21178@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0810252235040.22125@pacific.mpi-cbg.de.mpi-cbg.de>

On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:36:26PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> It is a (maybe ill-conceived) feature.  When branches are rewritten, their 
> original versions are stored in the refs/original/ namespace.  You can 
> force overwriting with "-f".
> 
> I wonder if people would like to have this feature removed; reflogs should 
> be enough.
> 
> Thoughts?

I have always been annoyed by the refs/original namespace, and it certainly makes explaining the common task of "how do I get this blob out of my repo" a bit more confusing.

So I would be happy to see it go, and the reflog mentioned in its place:

diff --git a/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt
index fed6de6..1e8e7b4 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-filter-branch.txt
@@ -43,4 +43,4 @@ rewriting published history.)
 Always verify that the rewritten version is correct: The original refs,
-if different from the rewritten ones, will be stored in the namespace
-'refs/original/'.
+if different from the rewritten ones, will be available through the
+reflog as <branch>@{1}.