Re: avoiding fetching specific refs from a remote

>
> On Tue, Aug 04, 2020 at 02:53:30PM -0700, Jacob Keller wrote:
>
> > This results in the annoying completion behavior where:
> >
> > $git checkout ma<TAB>
> > main
> > master
> >
> > Essentially, because both main and master have similar names, tab
> > completion requires remembering to type one additional character than
> > I am used to.
>
> Heh, I didn't think anybody considered that implication so far; the fact
> that they were similar names has generally been considered a positive. I
> agree it would be annoying.
>
> > I'd like to be able to customize my pull so that I either (a) exclude
> > the reference when performing a fetch, or (b) exclude the reference
> > when tab completing.
>
> Not quite (b), but if you:
>
>   - delete any local "master" branch, if you haven't already
>
>   - set $GIT_COMPLETION_CHECKOUT_NO_GUESS to "1"
>
> then it shouldn't complete "master". The second is necessary because
> we'd try to complete the magic "git checkout master" that auto-creates
> the branch from the remote version.
>

> > something like adding a remote.<name>.excludeRefs which would allow
> > specifying a set of references to exclude from matching the refspec..
> >
> > I realize I could customize the refspec to list the set of things I
> > want, but then I would miss any potential future branches until I
> > updated my remote config again.
>
> This is definitely a reasonable thing to want, and it has come up off
> and on over the years. One search term for the list archive is "negative
> refspecs", though it turns up a lot of useless hits when the two words
> are not directly adjacent.
>
> This old thread might be worth reading:
>
>   https://lore.kernel.org/git/20140124090104.GA396@x4/
>
> and there is even a patch in there:
>
>   https://lore.kernel.org/git/20140125013433.GA22336@sigill.intra.peff.net/
>
> but I didn't go over it carefully enough to know whether it is utter
> trash, or something that could be used as a starting point.
>