From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:27:09 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] gitk: disable checkout of remote branch
Message-ID: <20091104072709.GC24263@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <fabb9a1e0911032241u3735fa30heaa195d959879f5a@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 07:41:28AM +0100, Sverre Rabbelier wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 07:17, Tim Mazid <timmazid@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > So instead of invoking 'git checkout REMOTE/BRANCH', do 'git checkout -b
> > BRANCH REMOTE/BRANCH'.
> 
> Automagically doing 'git checkout -t remote/branch' when asked to do
> 'git checkout remote/branch' was suggested earlier on the list and I
> think there was even a patch that implemented it, not sure what the
> outcome of the series was. I do remember that Peff was annoyed by it
> at the GitTogether though so it might be a bad idea.

It's in 'next' now. And for the record, my complaint about its behavior
turned out to be partially because I was an idiot. I am still not
convinced that we won't later regret leaving the stale local branch
sitting around, or that users won't find it confusing to see:

  $ git checkout foo
  Branch foo set up to track remote branch foo from origin.
  Switched to a new branch 'foo'

  ... time passes ...

  $ git checkout foo
  Switched to branch 'foo'
  Your branch is behind 'origin/foo' by 1 commit, and can be fast-forwarded.

(i.e., you do the same thing, but get two very different results, and
you have to know how to do the fast-forward. Trivial if you are used to
working with branches, but perhaps not if you are just sightseeing).

But I am no longer planning on writing a long-winded rant about the
feature. ;)

-Peff