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Re: [PATCH] git-gui: give more advice when detaching HEAD

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
Feb 15, 2011, 06:39 UTC
Message-ID
<20110215063903.GA28634@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<20110213123151.GA31375@book.hvoigt.net>
On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 01:31:52PM +0100, Heiko Voigt wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
> On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 02:05:38AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
> >   1. Give some indication or warning during commit that you're in a
> >      detached state. The CLI template says "You are not on any branch"
> >      when editing the commit message, and mentions "detached HEAD" as
> >      the branch in the post-commit summary. As far as I can tell,
> >      git-gui says nothing at all.
> 
> How about something like this:
> [...]
> Subject: [PATCH] git-gui: warn when trying to commit on a detached head
> 
> The commandline is already warning when checking out a detached head.
> Since the only thing thats potentially dangerous is to create commits
> on a detached head lets warn in case the user is about to do that.

It seems a little heavy-handed to have a dialog pop up for each commit. It's not actually dangerous to create a commit on a detached HEAD; it's just dangerous to _leave_ without referencing your new commits.

So I think for making commits, something informational that doesn't require a click-through would be the more appropriate level (similar to what the CLI does; it just mentions it in the commit template). I guess there isn't a commit template in the same way for git gui; instead, it is always showing you the current state. And indeed, it does switch from "Current Branch: master" to "Current Branch: HEAD" when you are on a detached head. Maybe we should beef that up a bit to "You are not on any branch." or something that is more self-explanatory. I dunno. I am just guessing here about what users would want.

I do think a pop-up is appropriate when you try to check something else out, and commits you have made on the detached HEAD are about to become unreferenced. But this is something even the CLI doesn't do, so it would make sense to see how the check is implemented there first before doing anything in git-gui.

-Peff
Previous: Heiko VoigtNext: Heiko Voigt
Message 12 of 19 in “git-gui: give more advice when detaching HEAD”
  1. git-gui: give more advice when detaching HEADJeff King, Feb 12, 2011
  2. Junio C HamanoFeb 12, 2011
  3. Jeff KingFeb 12, 2011
  4. Junio C HamanoFeb 12, 2011
  5. Jeff KingFeb 12, 2011
  6. Junio C HamanoFeb 17, 2011
  7. Junio C HamanoFeb 12, 2011
  8. Sverre RabbelierFeb 13, 2011
  9. Johannes SixtFeb 13, 2011
  10. Junio C HamanoFeb 13, 2011
  11. Heiko VoigtFeb 13, 2011
  12. Jeff KingFeb 15, 2011
  13. Heiko VoigtFeb 15, 2011
  14. Pat ThoytsFeb 15, 2011
  15. Jeff KingFeb 16, 2011
  16. Heiko VoigtFeb 17, 2011
  17. Jeff KingFeb 16, 2011
  18. Heiko VoigtFeb 17, 2011
  19. Victor EngmarkFeb 16, 2011

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