Re: [RFD] what should "git push remote.host:path" do?

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Jan 12, 2006, 19:00 UTC
Message-ID: <7v64opp8zh.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <BAYC1-PASMTP099ED34B41FFA02EDEEF25AE270@CEZ.ICE>

"Sean" <seanlkml@sympatico.ca> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

> What about assuming a refspec of  "current-branch:current-branch" ?
> That is, if the branch name that is currently checked out locally
> also exists upstream, push into it (only if fast forward).
>
> This should allow multiple branches to be updated locally, and pushed
> upstream selectively.

Requiring at least one refspec to be given to the command has the same property. Ways to give refspec to the command are:

 (1) give one or more from the command line
 (2) give --all from the command line
 (3) give none from the command line, but in this case you need
     at least one "Push:" the "remotes" file you use.

So it really boils down to "is pushing the current branch a better default"?

Even if a project uses CVS style shared repository setup, individual developers would want to use topic branches to prepare things that they eventually push to the shared common, and I suspect that it would lead to more mistakes if we default the push to push the current branch. "Push: master" in the remotes/ file to publish your results to the shared repository would be safer; "git push" when you are still in your topic branch and have not merged things up into your master branch for publication would be no-op, as opposed to pushing the topic branch, probably resulting in the topic branch in the shared repository, even though the topic was meant to be internal to his repository.