Re: [BUG] [git 2.16.1] yeeek ... my files are gone .. by git pull <otherRepositoryUrl>

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 22, 2018, 23:20 UTC
Message-ID: <20180222232031.GE256918@aiede.svl.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <741A56BF-93C0-41EA-856F-C1170803F0A7@childno.de>

Hi Marcel,

Marcel 'childNo͡.de' Trautwein" wrote:

> I think we have a problem … or at least I had
> and I’m not quite sure if this is „working as designed“
> but I’m sure it „should not work as it did“.

[...]

Show 7 quoted lines

> I wanted to clone another repository … but yeah … it’s late for me today and I put
> in s.th. `git pull git@private.gitlab.instance.example.com:aGroup/repository.git`
>
> next … all committed files are zapped and the repository given has
> been checked out in my home directory 🤯👻
>
> what? Shouldn’t this just fail? Why can I pass another remote to pull?

Sorry, this is not the most helpful reply but:

Can you describe a reproduction recipe so that I can experience the same thing?

That is:

 1. steps to reproduce
 2. expected result
 3. actual result
 4. the difference and why it was unexpected

I suspect that this information is in your message, somewhere, but it is (understandably) unfocussed and I am having trouble pulling it out.

[...]

Show 8 quoted lines

> trying to fix this up by doing another pull failed:
> ```
> -bash:$ git remote -v
> origin	git@bitbucket.org:childnode/marcel.git (fetch)
> origin	git@bitbucket.org:childnode/marcel.git (push)
>
> -bash:$ git pull
> fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories

Ok, this part is something I might be able to help shed some light on.

Searching for 'unrelated' in "git help pull" finds:

       --allow-unrelated-histories
	   By default, git merge command refuses to merge histories that do not
	   share a common ancestor. This option can be used to override this
	   safety when merging histories of two projects that started their
	   lives independently. As that is a very rare occasion, no
	   configuration variable to enable this by default exists and will not
	   be added.

So that explains the "what" of that error message.

The "why" is a separate question.  Could you share output from

  git log --all --graph --decorate --oneline --simplify-by-decoration

and

  git status

to help us understand your current state?

Also, suggestions for improvements to the 'refusing to merge' message would be very welcome.

Thanks and hope that helps, Jonathan