"remote-tracking branch"?

From: Marc Branchaud <marcnarc@xiplink.com>
Date: Jun 11, 2012, 14:54 UTC
Message-ID: <4FD6068D.1010509@xiplink.com>

On 12-06-11 06:04 AM, Lucien Kong wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> "git rebase -i" can be very dangerous if used on an already published
> history. This code detects that one is rewriting a commit that is an
> ancestor of a remote-tracking branch, and warns the user through the
> editor. This feature is controlled by a new config key
> rebase.checkremoterefs.

When I first read this I was confused by the term "remote-tracking branch". I see that the docs for "git remote" and "git branch" use this term for branches like 'origin/master', as does the glossary.

But to me 'origin/master' is simply a "remote branch".  In my mind, a
"remote-tracking branch" is a local branch with its "remote" and "merge"
config values set.  So if my local config has
	branch.public.remote = origin
	branch.public.merge = refs/heads/master
then my local 'public' branch is a "remote-tracking branch" that tracks the
'master' branch in the 'origin' repository.

I feel my interpretation is reinforced by the --track/--no-track options in "git branch".

I believe the docs would be clearer if they used the terms "remote branch" and "remote-tracking branch" in this way.[1] But before submitting a patch, I'd like to hear what others think. Am I maybe missing some other interpretation of "remote branch"? Or is there already a term for "a local branch that tracks a remote branch"?

M.

[1] I understand that strictly speaking, all branches are local, and a "remote branch" like 'origin/master' is in fact a local branch named 'master' in the 'origin' namespace, and that it's really the fetch refspecs in a remote's configuration that link updates in a remote repository to some local branches, and there's no requirement that a remote named 'origin' be linked with the local 'origin' ref namespace, and so on and so on. I think these details are important, and should be documented somewhere. But I also think "remote branch" is a good shorthand term to refer to all that.