From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 19:37:36 GMT
Subject: Re: error: src refspec refs/heads/master matches more than one.
Message-ID: <871tz0rz3z.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqha7wfdld.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

> Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> +	if (!force && dwim_ref(name, strlen(name), sha1, &real_ref))
>> +		die(_("creating ref refs/heads/%s makes %s ambiguous.\n"
>> +		      "Use -f to create it anyway."),
>> +		    name, name);
>
> Does this check still allow you to create a branch "refs/heads/next"
> and then later create a branch "next"?  The latter will introduce an
> ambiguity without any prevention, even though the prevention would
> trigger if the order in which these two branches are created is
> swapped--- the end result has ambiguity but the safety covers only one
> avenue to the confusing situation.
>
> And the only way I can think of to avoid that kind of confusion is
> to forbid creation of a subset of possible names by reserving a set
> of known (but arbitrary) prefixes---which I am not sure is a good
> way to go.  At least not yet.

Just for the record: after seeing the respective arguments, I consider
it the sanest way.

It's conceivable to give a configuration option for augmenting the set
of reserved prefixes.  That would allow to adapt the arbitrariness to
match the policies or ref name choices of a particular project while
keeping the set of references addressed by the standard git commands in
check automagically.

-- 
David Kastrup