From: Scott Schmit <i.grok@comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 00:23:33 GMT
Subject: Re: git branch command is incompatible with bash
Message-ID: <20150729002333.GB23501@odin.ulthar.us>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq4mkogvb7.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 08:23:40AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> writes:
> > Are you trying to say that the result of 'rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD'
> > is suboptimal and that of 'symbolic-ref --short HEAD' is OK?
> 
> My "Interesting" was primarily about that I wasn't aware of the
> "--abbrev-ref" option.
> 
> Yes, I am sure some time ago I accepted a patch to add it, but I
> simply do not see the point, especially because the "--short" option
> to symbolic-ref feels much more superiour.  "What branch am I on?"
> is about symbolic refs, rev-parse is about revisions.

Sometimes my question is "what branch am I on?" -- in which case
symbolic-ref is adequate.

Other times, my question is "where am I/what did I check out?" which is
usually a branch, sometimes a tag, and sometimes a commit hash.  We
don't have a one-stop-shop command to answer that question in all cases,
which is unfortunate.

git status answers, but that's not plumbing.  git-prompt manages to do a
fairly good job, but the logic is by no means straightforward.

-- 
Scott Schmit