Re: [PATCH/RFC] builtin-checkout: suggest creating local branch when appropriate to do so

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Oct 6, 2009, 09:12 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0910061111410.4985@pacific.mpi-cbg.de>
In-Reply-To: <20091005225611.GB29335@coredump.intra.peff.net>

Hi,

On Mon, 5 Oct 2009, Jeff King wrote:

Show 21 quoted lines

> On Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 11:17:09PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> 
> > > $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
> > > $ cd git
> > > $ git checkout next
> > > error: pathspec 'next' did not match any file(s) known to git.
> > > To create a local branch from the same named remote branch, use
> > >   git checkout -b next origin/next
> > > 
> > > Motivated by http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/129528
> > 
> > Actually, we should really think long and hard why we should not 
> > automatically check out the local branch "next" in that case.  I mean, 
> > really long and hard, and making sure to take user-friendliness into 
> > account at least as much as simplicity of implementation.
> 
> Some devil's advocate questions:
> 
>   1. How do we find "origin/next" given "next"? What are the exact
>      lookup rules? Do they cover every case? Do they avoid surprising
>      the user?

I am sure your strategy would be the same as mine: enumerate all remote branches, strip the remote nickname, and compare. If there are ambiguities, tell the user and stop.

>   2. What do we do if our lookup is ambiguous (e.g., "origin/next" and
>      "foobar/next" both exist)?

See above.

> 
>   3. If our lookup does have ambiguities or corner cases, is it better
>      to simply be suggesting to the user, rather than proceeding with an
>      action?

See above.

Ciao, Dscho