Re: [PATCH/RFC] builtin-checkout: suggest creating local branch when appropriate to do so

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 6, 2009, 20:33 UTC
Message-ID: <7vzl84xnx0.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <76c5b8580910060943k6172e3a5waee2f92c403e5cc3@mail.gmail.com>

Eugene Sajine <euguess@gmail.com> writes:

>  As for the solution i would choose the "simplest thing that will work" - so
>  i think that we just have to notify user about his suicide attempt to
>  checkout nonlocal branch and offer him a correct syntax to go with.

We already do that, without going interactive, for warning unintended detachment:

    $ git checkout origin/next
    Note: moving to 'origin/next' which isn't a local branch
    If you want to create a new branch from this checkout, you may do so
    (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:
      git checkout -b <new_branch_name>
    ...

As to Mikael's scenario:

Show 9 quoted lines

>>> I can imagine this happening:
>>> % git clone git://git.git git
>>> % git checkout next
>>> do you want to checkout origin/next? y
>>> # a few days later
>>> % git fetch
>>> % git checkout next
>>> [freenode] /join #git
>>> [#git] i did git checkout next but my files are still the same?

No amount of sugarcoating the checkout syntax changes the fact that in the user's repository there _are_ two distinct refs, origin/next and next, and the "fetch few days later" updates only the former but never the latter. It can only be fixed by injecting a bit of clue to the user, in a way Dscho suggested in the thread.