Re: [PATCH 7/7] push: document --lockref

From: Marc Branchaud <mbranchaud@xiplink.com>
Date: Jul 9, 2013, 21:37 UTC
Message-ID: <51DC82A2.8020203@xiplink.com>
In-Reply-To: <7vhag3v59o.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

On 13-07-09 04:37 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 28 quoted lines

> Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> writes:
> 
>> Am 09.07.2013 21:53, schrieb Junio C Hamano:
>>> +--lockref::
>>> +--lockref=<refname>::
>>> +--lockref=<refname>:<expect>::
>>> ...
>>> +This is meant to make `--force` safer to use.
>>
>> This is a contradiction. "--force" means "I mean it, dude", and not "I
>> mean it sometimes". It would make sense if this sentence were "This is
>> meant to make `+refspec` safer to use."
> 
> No, this *IS* making --force safer by letting you to say in addition
> to --force alone which is blind, add --lockref to defeat it.
> 
> I do not see any good reason to change the samentics of "+refspec"
> for something like this.  "+refspec" and "--force refspec" have
> meant the same thing forever.  If --lockref adds safety to +refspec,
> the same safety should apply to "--force refspec".
> 
>> Do you intend to require users to opt in to safety by saying --lockref
>> until the end of time?
> 
> For normal users this is *NOT* necessary.  I do not know where
> people are getting the idea of making it default.
> 
> Rewinding a branch, needing to --force, is an exceptional case.

Yes, rewinding is exceptional.

However, when a rewind has to happen, I think most users would want to have this feature most of the time. I think anyone who rewinds a shared branch would hate to inadvertently throw away someone else's work. Rare is the person who really won't care about that.

So I agree with those who say that this would be nice default behaviour. I also don't think we need to make --force different from +refspec, mainly because if the rewound ref turns out to have moved a simple "git fetch" will update it and likely allow the next rewind attempt to succeed. A helpful error message would make this plain.

I also appreciate the desire to let this stew a while before making it the default. However, I don't think that leaving it as an option of push will give it enough exposure. I myself want this feature, and I do rewind or delete a branch every few months or so, but I'm almost certainly going to forget to use this option the next time the need arises.

But if it was instead/also a configurable option I could just turn on, that would be awesome.

<bikeshed> For the option name, how about --match-baseref ? </bikeshed>

M.