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Re: feature request: set remote/HEAD with fetch

From
brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date
Aug 16, 2024, 21:55 UTC
Message-ID
<Zr_KtAXQuFwEmFfI@tapette.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To
<D3HBD7C1FR14.74FL1Q1S9UCB@ferdinandy.com>
On 2024-08-16 at 11:53:31, Bence Ferdinandy wrote:
Show 19 quoted lines
> Hi,
> 
> this comes after a bit of discussion on #git. The current behaviour of git is
> that when cloning, `refs/remotes/[remote]/HEAD` is set, but if you use `git
> init` and `git remote add`, then you must manually run `git remote set-head -a`
> to arrive at the same state. Having origin/HEAD set is pretty useful for
> scripting and aliases, because you don't need to remember what the current
> project uses (origin/[master|main|trunk|etc]).
> 
> I would propose that running `git fetch` should also update remote/HEAD. In
> case there is a possibility that it is useful in some cases that remote/HEAD is
> actually different from whatever is set in the remote repository as the default
> branch, I think a setting for opt-out would be better, and the default
> behaviour should be essentially always running `set-head -a`.
> 
> My current workaround is an alias:
>     fetchall = !git fetch --all && git remote | xargs -i git remote set-head -a {}
> 
> which works for me, but I think it would be more elegant not to have to do this.

I believe this would be a valuable change. I know a lot of other users want this features as well. However, I think it needs to be opt-in, since there are some cases where you want `git fetch` to specifically fetch only certain objects or don't want to modify the refs. For example, I know some server-side implementations use `git fetch` internally and require refs to be updated in a special way, and they would not appreciate extra refs appearing.

-- 
brian m. carlson (they/them or he/him)
Toronto, Ontario, CA
Previous: Bence FerdinandyNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 2 of 7 in “feature request: set remote/HEAD with fetch”
  1. Bence FerdinandyAug 16, 2024
  2. brian m. carlsonAug 16, 2024
  3. Junio C HamanoAug 16, 2024
  4. Jeff KingAug 17, 2024
  5. Bence FerdinandyAug 17, 2024
  6. Johannes SchindelinAug 19, 2024
  7. Bence FerdinandyAug 20, 2024

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