Re: BUG 1.7.9: git branch fails to create new branch when --edit-description is used

From: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Date: Jan 29, 2012, 10:11 UTC
Message-ID: <4F251B50.5080602@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <7v39azxb5l.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

On 01/29/2012 07:42 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 29 quoted lines

> Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
>> On 01/28/2012 08:27 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>>>
>>> We could error it out (i.e. you cannot name a thing that does not yet
>>> exist), or we could consider it is a convenience feature that you can
>>> prepare a description even before you create one, or we could even tweak
>>> it more like "-t $name" that tries to work both on existing one (without
>>> changing any base) or non-existing one, creating it while at it. The last
>>> approach historically is the most error prone (we had numerous bugs in the
>>> create_branch() helper after it started allowing an existing branch when
>>> updating the "track" information) and I would rather not go that route if
>>> we can avoid it.
>>>
>>> Honestly speaking, I haven't formed an opinion.
>>
>> I vote for an error.  Otherwise a typo in the branch name would lead to
>> the description's apparent disappearance into Nirvana.  An error would,
>> for example, have made it clear to the OP what was happening.
>>
>> A more useful option might be
>>
>>     git branch --with-description <branchname> [<start-point>]
>>
>> i.e., that a branch's description can be set at the same time as the
>> branch is created.
> 
> So you are saying either option 1 or 3 is preferrable, while I was saying
> I would rather avoid 3 if we could avoid it. Is that the short version?

Not quite. I agree that "--add-description" should fail if the branch already exists. But I was suggesting that there be a new *different* option that can be used when creating a branch. "--with-description" is probably not a great name, but I think it is a good idea that it be spelled differently than "--add-description". Perhaps even "--message", even though the abbreviation "-m" is precluded by the existing "-m" option.

Michael

-- 
Michael Haggerty
mhagger@alum.mit.edu
http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/