switch requires --detach [[Re: What actually is a branch]]

On 09/07/2021 17:08, Felipe Contreras wrote:

Ah, good point.

I would word it differently though. "git switch forces the use of --detach if switching to a non branch"

Bit of a twist. It's a nice safety for beginners. I remember when I started, I kept ending up detached. And I had no idea what to do next.

But once you are a bit more experienced the need to add that option can be bothersome. It's not common in my workflow, but I can see that it can be an issue.

So how to remedy?

- Drop the option / Make it default?
- add --allow-detach  and git config switch.detach allow ?

I don't really have a preference.

I think its a nice protection, but even without it, the warning on entering detached HEAD state is pretty good.

There is also a curious side effect.

If you went into detached, you can go back to attached using
   git switch -

but not back to detached by again doing
   git switch -

Even though you had been there, and that means you had used --detached, and therefore known what you did.