Re: git checkout error

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 9, 2012, 23:47 UTC
Message-ID: <7v626jdx8f.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <CAB9Jk9CZ8d=8ugYs7XHXs84Kj9xJmTHZyZ2J0hU66OBS7YDZTg@mail.gmail.com>

Angelo Borsotti <angelo.borsotti@gmail.com> writes:

> The man page describes --track and --no-track as "options".

But the problem you observed is *not* about --track or --no-track. It is about the "-b <branchname>" option.

You used the -b option that requires an argument, and as that argument, you gave a string "--no-track", as if you wanted to create a branch whose name is "--no-track". After these words on the command line are understood, there are two other arguments left on the command line, which is an syntax error as far as "git checkout" is concerned.

Again, this is asked-and-answered recently, and

    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/204397

has resulted in a leading to b6312c2 (checkout: reorder option handling, 2012-08-30), which is in v1.8.0-rc0 and onwards. You should get an error message that is a lot less confusing:

    $ git checkout -b --no-track topic remotes/origin/master
    fatal: '--no-track' is not a valid branch name.