Re: [PATCH 1/3] fetch: add --allow-local option

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: May 18, 2013, 12:25 UTC
Message-ID: <CAMP44s3xdWzVviPvrN7D1fTG6Lwgg-dEzju--VuiwZA-8bV+MQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <7vtxm1xxvd.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> This is irrelevant, it's an implementation detail of 'git pull'. *THE
>> USER* is not running 'git fetch .'
>
> To those who fear running "git pull", the following has worked as a
> quick way to "preview" what they would be getting.
>
>         git fetch
>         git log ..FETCH_HEAD
>
> and then they can "git merge FETCH_HEAD" to conclude it, or run a
> "git pull" for real.  We teach the more explicit form to end users
> in our tutorial,

That "tutorial" is mostly irrelevant; it has not been properly updated in years, and it doesn't do it's job properly.

Nowadays most people use the Pro Git book, which doesn't mention FETCH_HEAD even once. And why would it? It's not a useful concept for typical users.

Show 10 quoted lines

> So when "the user" is running "git fetch" on "mywork" branch that
> happens to be forked from a local "master", i.e. her configuration
> is set as
>
>         [branch "mywork"]
>                 remote = .
>                 merge = refs/heads/master
>
> we still need to have FETCH_HEAD updated to point at what we would
> be merging if she did a "git pull".

No, we don't need that. That is only needed by 'git pull', and in fact, it should be possible to reimplement 'git pull' so that it skips FETCH_HEAD when the remote is local.

These are mere implementation details.

> As I said in the very beginning, it was a mistake for me to suggest
> adding a special case behaviour for '.' remote in the first place.
> It breaks a long-standing expectation and workflow built around it.

The fact that it's "long-standing" doesn't mean it's sane.

> So sorry for wasting our time, and consider this as a misguided
> excursion.

It doesn't matter, the problem that 'git fetch' does something totally and completely uses is still there.

-- 
Felipe Contreras