From: Constantine Plotnikov <constantine.plotnikov@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:15:15 GMT
Subject: [usability bug] git branch -a does not disambiguate remote and local branches
Message-ID: <85647ef50812151015t4d5bc2b8p4ea53a0e4ad25e64@mail.gmail.com>

Let's consider the following scenario:

mkdir bare.git
mkdir local
cd bare.git
git --bare init
cd ../local
git init
echo test > test.txt
git add test.txt
git commit -m test
git remote add origin `pwd`/../bare.git
git push --all
git checkout -b origin/master master
echo updated > test.txt
git add test.txt
git commit -m updated

Note that that in this scenario, the user has created local branch in
the folder with the same name as a remote branch. While the supposed
user here is apparently shooting itself in the foot, the scenario is
still supported by git, and might happen as a result of more logical
git operations (like git fetch).

After this scenario is executed, git branch -a will give the following output:
  master
* origin/master
  origin/master

Note that there is two origin/master entries, but it is not clear
which is remote is and which is the local. I think that "git branch
-a" should print unambiguous names, qualifying them if needed.

Constantine