Re: push branch descriptions

> Angelo Borsotti <angelo.borsotti@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> currently, there is no means to push a branch description to a remote
>> repository. It is possible to create a branch, but not to set its
>> description.
>
> Correct.  You have to go to the remote repository and run "git
> branch --edit-description" there; there is currently no way to do
> this remotely, which may be an issue, but...
>
>> Would not be more correct to push also branch descriptions when
>> branches are pushed?
>
> ... I do not think "git push" is the best place to do so, given the
> inherently local nature of branches and branch descriptions.
>
> Imagine the project creates a branch "magic" to enhance its system
> with magic words.  The description for the "magic" branch in the
> project may say "support magic words" or something.
>
> You and your friend are tasked to add a handful of magic words,
> e.g. "xyzzy", "frotz" and "nitfol".  You may start your work like so
> on your "magic-xyzzy" branch:
>
>     $ git clone git://example.com/zork.git/
>     $ git checkout -b magic-xyzzy -t origin/magic
>
> And you say something like "add xyzzy magic" in its branch
> description.
>
>     $ git branch --edit-description magic-xyzzy
>
> After finishing your work, you may push it
>
>     $ git push origin magic-xyzzy:magic
>
> Should the description of the subtask "add xyzzy magic" overwrite
> the purpose of the project wide "magic" branch "support magic words"?
> Most likely not.
>
> The local nature of the description becomes even more clear if you
> imagine the case where the push at the last stage gets rejected due
> to non-fast-forward error (in other words, your friend has already
> pushed her support of the "frotz" magic to the "magic" branch.
>
> In fact, you would normally not directly push your magic-xyzzy
> branch to the magic branch, but you would do something like this
> once you are done:
>
>     $ git checkout -b magic -t origin/magic
>     $ git pull origin ;# to update with her work
>     $ git merge magic-xyzzy
>     $ git push origin magic
>
> And the last "merge" is where the description for your magic-xyzzy
> is used to fill the commit log template for you to explain your
> merge (that is, you are merging a branch whose description is "add
> xyzzy magic").  There is no reason to propagate the description of
> your magic-xyzzy topic to the description of shared magic branch
> when you push, as this merge commit already records what the branch
> that was merged was about.
>
> So you could modify "git push" to set the branch description when
> you push to create a branch remotely, but in general, "git push"
> should not be updating the branch description with the description
> of your local branch.  This comes as a consequence of the fact that
> the purpose of the branch in the remote central repository is, more
> often than not, different from the purpose of the corresponding
> branch in your repository.
>
> It would conceptually be a lot cleaner to treat updating of remote
> branch description as a separate "repository management" class of
> operation, similar to setting the repository description stored in
> $GIT_DIR/description.