From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:04:10 GMT
Subject: Re: git checkout -b -t
Message-ID: <7vd49mhe39.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <43d8ce650906020749r36a0cceao20dc54d1446a6ea@mail.gmail.com>

John Tapsell <johnflux@gmail.com> writes:

> $ git checkout -t origin/mybranch
> fatal: git checkout: --track and --no-track require -b
>
> So they do exactly what it tells them:
> $ git checkout -b -t origin/mybranch
> Switched to a new branch "-t"
>
> doh
>
> How can we make this less easy for people to shoot themselves in the
> foot?

 (1) Explain things in terms of semantics, not in terms of "brainless
     cut&paste" operations.

 (2) Avoid telling them what to do in the error messages, instead why what
     they did is an error.

E.g. "--track/--no-track does not make sense if you are not creating a new
branch" would be far less confusing in this particular case.