Re: How to ignore changes on remote

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 23, 2010, 16:44 UTC
Message-ID: <7vtys72dj8.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <d411cc4a1003230905y12839743x400333a0aa2e7018@mail.gmail.com>

Scott Chacon <schacon@gmail.com> writes:

> Why would we teach someone to do that instead of just recommending the
> far less obscure 'git push -f'?  A leading '+' on the refspec is
> ridiculously confusing compared to "just tell it to force the push
> with -f".  Am I forgetting something?

I think "-f" would be simpler and easier for people who use only one branch, as there is no "I want to disable only for this branch but still want other branches checked" problem in such a case.

Once they graduate from that and start using more than one branches, "-f" is too broad a brush that disables the check for everything you push out, and you would want to teach "+" as a way to narrow the possible damage.

"git push -f origin this_branch_only" can be used to limit the risk, but if they start from a short-and-lazy "git push -f" without arguments, their finger would have harder time to learn it. There is no such learning curve issue for "+", as you cannot use it without saying for which branch to disable the check.