Re: [PATCH] Docs: git checkout --orphan: `root commit' and `branch head'

> Michael Witten <mfwitten@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Well, as Junio mentioned, "--orphan" could be deprecated in favor of
>> "--no-parent"; the uncommon nature of this task works to our
>> advantage, in that it makes a deprecation of "--orphan" easy.
>
> I agree that _some_ cases would be more natural with commit --no-parent,
> but I disagree that it is a better solution in general.
>
> For example
>
> # I want to create a new root commit with a different tree
> git rm -fr *
> vi file-in-new-project.txt
> git add file-in-new-project.txt
> # continue hacking for a while
> git commit -m "New project" # oops, I forgot the --no-parent
>
> History is not destroyed and you can still "git reset" back to the
> previous commit, but you've at least temporarily damaged your branch
> (and no --force flag could have prevented it). With "git checkout
> --orphan" in the above scenario, you run the command at the time you
> take the decision you want to create a root commit, and then hack
> normally.
>
> Even if you use it normally:
>
> # I want to create a new root commit with a different tree
> git checkout -b new-project
> # hack for a while
> git status
> # ?!? why are files shown as 'deleted', 'moved', 'modified', I said I
> # was creating a new project!
>
> Also, with your proposal, we would need to add two flags to "commit"
> (--no-parent and --force), which is one of the first command beginners
> learn, while in the current state we have just one for "checkout" to do
> the trick, and newbies do not use or read the doc for checkout, so it's
> not scary for them.