Re: BUG or FEATURE? Use of '/' in branch names

From: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Date: May 4, 2014, 05:39 UTC
Message-ID: <5365D2A4.9010702@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <1399102525.2716.1.camel@spirit>

On 05/03/2014 09:35 AM, Dennis Kaarsemaker wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> On vr, 2014-05-02 at 15:16 -0700, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
>>>     $ git checkout -b hotfix/b2
>>>     error: unable to resolve reference refs/heads/hotfix/b2: Not a
>> directory
>>>     fatal: Failed to lock ref for update: Not a directory
>>>     $
>>
>> That's an ugly message.  I think we can do better. (hint hint)
> 
> 2.0.0-rc2 has a better message already:
> 
> $ git checkout -b hotfix/b2
> error: 'refs/heads/hotfix' exists; cannot create 'refs/heads/hotfix/b2'
> fatal: Failed to lock ref for update: Not a directory

I was trying to remember when this was changed, but at first I couldn't reproduce the "fixed" error message at all. Finally I figured out that the the error message that you get depends on whether the existing reference is loose:

    $ bin-wrappers/git checkout -b master/foo
    error: unable to resolve reference refs/heads/master/foo: Not a
directory
    fatal: Failed to lock ref for update: Not a directory

vs. packed:

    $ bin-wrappers/git checkout -b base/foo
    error: 'refs/heads/base' exists; cannot create 'refs/heads/base/foo'
    fatal: Failed to lock ref for update: Not a directory

It would be good to make the error message uniform and to document this restriction.

Michael

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