Re: [PATCH] checkout: implement "-" shortcut name for last branch

From: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Date: Jan 15, 2009, 17:05 UTC
Message-ID: <200901151805.44747.trast@student.ethz.ch>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0901151510340.3586@pacific.mpi-cbg.de>

Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> There are a number of issues why I would like to avoid introducing 
> LAST_HEAD:
> 
> - it does not work when you are using different Git versions on the same 
>   repository,
> 
> - it does not work when you switched recently,

If you switch once, you'll be able to use the feature one checkout later than if it was reflog-based.

If you switch a lot, the feature won't be in your git half the time anyway.

> - you are storing redundant information,

AFAIK it's the first instance of this data in a non-free-form field. There's also the precedent of ORIG_HEAD.

> - yes, the field is meant for user consumption, but no, it is not 
>   free-form,

It's a field of almost arbitrary character data, filled by 70% of the update-ref calls I can find in git.git in a "<tool>: <comment>" format and by the rest with things such as "initial pull" or "refs/remotes/git-svn: updating HEAD". (The latter is so informative that it probably deserves a fix.) How is that not free-form?

> - AFAICT your version could never be convinced to resurrect deleted 
>   branches, without resorting to reflogs anyway.

Neither can any other use of git-checkout without the user manually recovering some valid revspec referring to the old branch tip from the reflog. I wanted to be able to abbreviate the previous branch's name, and it does just that.

> - the reflog method reflects pretty much exactly how people work around 
>   the lack of "checkout -" currently, so why not just use the same proven 
>   approach?

So you can make me fight an uphill battle against your idea how it should be done.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch