Re: [PATCH v14 2/2] checkout: extend --track with a "fetch" mode to refresh start-point

From: Kristofer Karlsson <krka@spotify.com>
Date: Jun 25, 2026, 09:15 UTC
Message-ID: <CAL71e4MiijEiM26TKJcOYT7L4pfQeMM_F2oT3U3igP-wOZm2Ag@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAHwyqnWdsYGHMcMT=B-Vdrb_DUK61QBs0-YvWkdeq958v_r35w@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 at 10:54, Harald Nordgren <haraldnordgren@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

>
> Hi!
>
> I think you are touching on the critical point here; Git is likely one
> of the most ordered software projects that exist (I haven't worked on
> Linux kernel but that's the only one I can imagine is more stringent),
> and every "real job" I had has been fast-paced and chaotic.
>
> I believe that we must leave the ivory tower and make Git great for
> the real world.
>

I wouldn't call it an ivory tower, but rather a very solid foundation of useful primitives that can be composed and extended by higher level workflows. I think this is a good thing. The git core is kept clean and simple and it provides hooks and tooling to allow for customization.

For the combination of fetch and checkout, it seems easy enough to add as a git alias:

  [alias]
      newtopic = "!f() { git fetch origin master && git checkout -b
\"$1\" FETCH_HEAD; }; f"

I think the usecase is valid, but I think it can be cleanly added on top of git instead of changing git.

- Kristofer