From: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 11:02:49 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 10/21] checkout: split part of it to new command 'switch'
Message-ID: <5cd15ff0-8913-9b92-6ddb-94eff6f22077@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20190314091753.GA9852@ash>

On 14/03/2019 09:17, Duy Nguyen wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 01:28:35PM -0400, Eric Sunshine wrote:
>>>> Again, not much of a datapoint, but I do use --orphan periodically.
>>>> The idea of "fixing" the behavior so that --orphan starts with a clean
>>>> slate is certainly appealing (since it matches how I've used orphan
>>>> branches in each case).
>>>
>>> The only three people who have commented on --orphan in this thread
>>> all apparently feel the same way: the current behavior is wrong.
>>> Maybe we can switch it to start with an empty index after all?
>>
>> Starting empty may match intuition better. (More importantly, perhaps,
>> it's harder to come up with a use-case for --orphan which doesn't
>> involve starting with a clean slate.)
> 
> OK so the new --orphan description would be like this, right?
> 
> --8<--
> --orphan <new-branch>::
> 	Create a new 'orphan' branch, named `<new-branch>`. If
> 	`<start-point>` is specified, the working tree is adjusted to
> 	match it. The index remains empty (i.e. no file is tracked).
> -->8--

What happens if no <start-point> is given? Do you end up with an empty
working tree or the current one? I'd lean towards an empty working tree
(with a check that there are no uncommitted changes, users can use
`restore` if they want some of the files back) but that is inconsistent
with the implicit <start-point> of -c.

Best Wishes

Phillip

> I was wondering if instead of the empty index, we mark on files from
> <start-point> as intent-to-add. That way "git commit -a" achieves the
> same as before, but you could still carefully craft the new index and
> "git commit". Dunno. Not going to implement it unless somebody says
> something, since I rarely (if ever?) use --orphan.
> 
> I may need someone to come up with a convincing commit message
> too. All I've got is "I've been told this is a good thing to do" :)
> --
> Duy
>