Re: [PATCH v6 3/3] worktree add: improve message for ambiguous remote branch name

From: Yoichi Nakayama <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 22, 2026, 00:50 UTC
Message-ID: <CAF5D8-trxeMd8HYzy6kD4myf+bynkxOvxKDQrMdmqnvcdpdkEA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqzeyfxcdu.fsf@gitster.g>

On Sat, Aug 22, 2026 at 8:49 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

>
> Yoichi Nakayama <yoichi.nakayama@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > My initial patch included a warning and advice here,
> > but now I don't think they are necessary.
> >
> > Even if multiple remotes match here, the command completes
> > successfully. This could well be the intended behavior
> > (just as when there is no match). In that case, a warning
> > or advice might be superfluous.
>
> In other words, there is no point in calling dwim_branch() from that
> code path, as the end result is exactly the same whether no remotes
> match, exactly one remote matches, or two or more remotes match?
> Would it then make sense to leave a note there to consider later if
> the dwim_branch() call can be removed?

No. The exit codes of the command 'git worktree add ../topic-branch' are the same (== 0). but the results are different.

If there is a unique match found in dwim_branch(), it creates a local branch named topic-branch which tracks <remote>/topic-branch. In case of no match or multiple matches, it creates a local branch named topic-branch from HEAD.

Since Git treats both cases as successful, either can be considered the intended behavior. (Although, if there are multiple matches, there is a fair chance the result might not be what was intended.)

I am confident that it is appropriate to provide a hint when a command fails, but it is difficult to decide what to do when a command succeeds.

Thanks,

-- 
Yoichi NAKAYAMA