Re: aborted 'git fetch' leaves workspace unusable

> stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org writes:
>
>> However, in this case, even running the fetch was a mistake; I would
>> have prefered that it leave FETCH_HEAD in its previous state.
>
> I think the clearing of leftover FETCH_HEAD is one of the early
> things "git fetch" does, unless "--append" is in effect.  I haven't
> looked at the code for a long time, but it may be possible to move
> the logic of doing so around so that this clearing is done as lazily
> as possible.
>
> I however suspect that such a change may have fallouts on other
> people who are writing tools like yours; they may be depending on
> seeing FETCH_HEAD cleared after a failed fetch, and be surprised to
> see a stale contents after they (attempt to) run "git fetch" in it.
>
> So it is not so clear if it is a good thing to change the behaviour
> of "git fetch" not to touch FETCH_HEAD upon a failure.