Re: [PATCH] branch: delete now accepts '-' as branch name

From: Erlend Aasland <erlend-a@innova.no>
Date: Feb 16, 2022, 23:06 UTC
Message-ID: <400A4D37-74EA-4F3B-BA3B-99FFDAE3CB3C@innova.no>
In-Reply-To: <00720bfb-c7b7-aaf2-e846-19b08d7b9cf4@sunshineco.com>

Show 5 quoted lines

> On 16 Feb 2022, at 20:03, Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> wrote:
> 
> Patches implementing this behavior for `git branch -D` have been submitted previously but were rejected (if I recall correctly) since "delete" is a destructive operation, unlike other cases in which `-` is accepted. A relatively recent submission and ensuing discussion is at [1].
> 
> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/20200501222227.GE41612@syl.local/T/

Thanks for the heads-up regarding previous discussions, Eric.

AFAIK, switch/checkout, rebase, and merge all use "-" as a shortcut to the "last branch", so for me, it made sense with similar semantics when deleting a branch. I understand the concern regarding "destructive operations", but deleting a branch is not comparable to, for example, deleting a file. Deleting a branch is "soft destructive"; unless *explicitly* silenced, git kindly tells us which ref we can use to immediately recreate our branch:

$ git branch -D - # oops, shouldn't have done that! Deleted branch stuff (was 580cd9ab29). $ git switch -c stuff 580cd9ab29

Until now, I've just been using the @{-1} notation, but - is very much faster to type ;)

There are no new arguments pro this feature, so I guess the conclusion from 2020 still stands :)