Re: Git bundles for backup and cloning: the Zaphod Beeblebrox thread

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date: Feb 18, 2013, 21:49 UTC
Message-ID: <E937CF00A75848FA900526903E5B9834@PhilipOakley>
In-Reply-To: <kfrb11$ugv$2@ger.gmane.org>

From: "Alain Kalker" <a.c.kalker@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013 7:28 PM

Show 48 quoted lines

> From the current documentation for git-bundle(1), it may not be clear
> for
> users unfamilliar with Git, how to create a bundle which can be used
> for
> backup purposes, or, more generally, to clone to a completely new
> repository.
>
> Philip Oakley has posted a documentation patch some time ago, but
> Junio
> has pointed out several concerns.
> Ref: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/205887/
> focus=205897
>
> Here's my attempt to summarize the concerns, adding some of my own,
> and a
> possible solution.
>
> 1. "Missing HEAD syndrome"
> $ git bundle create <bundle> master
> -or-
> $ git bundle create <bundle> <branchname...>
> -or-
> $ git bundle create <bundle> --branches
> -then-
> $ git clone <bundle> <dir>
>
> will be unable to checkout any files due to a missing ref for HEAD.
> Though this can be fixed by going into <dir> and doing `git checkout
> <ref>`, this is not very user-friendly.
>
> 2. "Detached HEAD syndrome"
> $ git bundle create <bundle> HEAD
> $ git clone <bundle> <dir>
> will checkout files alright, but leaves one in a "detached HEAD"
> state.
>
> 3. "Exploding HEAD syndrome"
> $ git bundle create <bundle> --all
> will add the HEAD, but will add refs from refs/remotes/* too, which is
> not desirable when cloning, unless one sets up all the remotes (e.g.
> by
> restoring .git/config) as well.
>
> Finally, my solution for backing up only the local branches of a
> repository:
> $ git bundle create <bundle> --branches HEAD
> but this may not be very easy for new users to figure out on their own
> unless well documented (perhaps a new flag?)

Perhaps if you draft up a documentation patch that would fit in the Examples section it could be discussed. The Example section allows that the various caveats can stated and be covered.

It would also be worth linking to 'git rev-parse' under the <git-rev-list-args> so folk would actually look it up.

It may be that the example(s) needs to include
    --branches[=pattern]
    --tags[=pattern]
rather than --all. to cover Junio's points.

The --all 'question/solution' has come up a number of times so it does look worth having something in the documentation. This would be something ;-)

Show 5 quoted lines

>
> Any comments or suggestions (including HHGTTG references!) are very
> welcome.
>
> -Alain

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