From: Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:55:49 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] merge: default to @{upstream}
Message-ID: <87hbcp25wa.fsf@catnip.gol.com>
In-Reply-To: <1296231457-18780-1-git-send-email-felipe.contreras@gmail.com>

Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
> So 'git merge' is 'git merge @{upstream}' instead of 'git merge -h';
> it's better to do something useful.

I totally agree -- this would be a good change[*] -- but this suggestion
has been made before, and always gets shot down for vaguely silly
reasons...

I often do "git fetch; <see what changed upstream>; git pull".  I think
this is probably not a rare pattern, when one is working with other
people via a shared upstream.

The git-pull is obviously slightly risky because another change could
have happened after the fetch, but I use that instead of "git-merge"
because git-pull's defaults make it very convenient ... and _usually_
there's no issue...  If git-merge had proper defaults (as you suggest),
it would be exactly as convenient as git-pull (and _less_ dangerous), so
I'd use that instead.

[and, no, saying "you can add an alias!" is not a reasonable answer --
git should be convenient by default!]

-Miles

-- 
Hers, pron. His.