From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:59:25 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] Documentation/git-checkout.txt: clarify usage
Message-ID: <7vobhsjq6a.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <CAH5451nVe1VcD3VzCO7EtKSkzv9CyJs=uqQ9MkMTJEXMTwEvmw@mail.gmail.com>

Andrew Ardill <andrew.ardill@gmail.com> writes:

> Even if the primary purpose of "git checkout <branch>" is to "check
> out the branch so that further work is done on that branch", I don't
> believe that means it has to be stated first. In fact, I would say
> that there are enough other use cases that the language should be
> slightly more use-case agnostic in the first situation. For example,
> someone might switch to another branch or commit simply to see what
> state the tree was in at that point.

I've been deliberately avoiding the term "switch", actually.  I
agree that it may be familiar to people with prior exposure to
subversion, but that is not the primary audience of the manual.

> Some people use checkout to
> deploy a tag of the working tree onto a production server. The first
> example in particular is, I think, a common enough operation that
> restricting the opening lines of documentation to talking about
> building further work is misleading.

I agree with you that sightseeing use case where you do not intend
to make any commit is also important.  That is exactly why I said
"further work is done on that branch" not "to that branch" in the
message you are responding to.