Re: Convenient shortcut to push delete current branch?

From: Robert Dailey <rcdailey.lists@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 1, 2015, 18:37 UTC
Message-ID: <CAHd499C7r+Xd1+4Sn5WdXrEHv5yp0=jbnMUvLBHHJ-1s1sJ4gQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CA+P7+xpWXoNiK67xCepoChr8rqX-Z5EcNb-Bs3xhC+Uot2ruYg@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 24 quoted lines

> On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 9:43 AM, Robert Dailey <rcdailey.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
>> For convenient pushing of current branch, git supports this syntax:
>>
>> $ git push origin HEAD
>>
>> This will push your current branch up. However, is there such a
>> shortcut for *deleting* the branch? The only goal here is to avoid
>> having to type the branch name in the push command. Normally I rely on
>> tab completion but we have tons of branches, all which start with some
>> prefix mixed with numbers, so it becomes cumbersome to rely on tab
>> completion. Ideally I'd like to be able to do:
>>
>> $ git push --delete origin HEAD
>> $ git push origin :HEAD
>>
>> Is there a syntax like this available?
>
> You can do
>
> git push origin:<branchname>
>
> but I don't believe HEAD is supported. It might be valuable to extend
> push to have a --delete option which would maybe be useful for those
> who didn't learn the full refspec syntax.

Push already has a --delete option.

Show 5 quoted lines

> I don't think git push origin :HEAD makes too much sense, since that's
> on the remote side of a refspec, and you want it interpreted
> locally... I suppose it makes sense somewhat, but other refspecs with
> HEAD on the remote side of the refspec don't really make sense, where
> as HEAD always makes sense on the local side of the refspec.

HEAD makes sense on the remote side if you think of it like an alias:

HEAD -> branch-name -> SHA1

HEAD simply points to branch-name. It makes sense for git to assume that we should never do anything with real HEAD ref on the remote side, and instead treat it as a substitution for the remote name. My assumption may not be correct, but at the very least it should be a niche case.