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[1.8.0] git checkout refs/heads/foo checks out branch foo

From
Martin von Zweigbergk <martin.von.zweigbergk@gmail.com>
Date
Feb 7, 2011, 11:01 UTC
Message-ID
<alpine.DEB.1.10.1102062234010.3788@debian>
Proposal:

'git checkout refs/heads/foo' (or 'git checkout heads/foo' for that matter) does not check out the branch, but instead detaches HEAD at foo. This is quite counter-intuitive (at least to me) and the same functionality can be achieved by using e.g. foo~0. Change the behavior so that the branch is actually checked out. This also applies to e.g. 'git rebase master refs/heads/topic', which currently rebases a detached HEAD. There are probably other examples as well that I'm not aware of.

Risks:

Existing scripts may depend on the current behavior. It seems unlikely that many users depend on it. Most likely, they use foo~0 or foo^0 instead.

Migration plan:

Make 'git checkout refs/head/foo' emit a warning in the next 1.7.x explaining that its semantics will change in 1.8.0. Then change the behavior in 1.8.0 and remove the warning.

Next: Junio C Hamano
Message 1 of 18 in “[1.8.0] git checkout refs/heads/foo checks out branch foo”
  1. Martin von ZweigbergkFeb 7, 2011
  2. Junio C HamanoFeb 7, 2011
  3. Jeff KingFeb 7, 2011
  4. Sverre RabbelierFeb 7, 2011
  5. Jonathan NiederFeb 7, 2011
  6. Junio C HamanoFeb 7, 2011
  7. Jeff KingFeb 7, 2011
  8. Jonathan NiederFeb 8, 2011
  9. Jeff KingFeb 8, 2011
  10. Martin von ZweigbergkFeb 8, 2011
  11. checkout: introduce --detach synonym for "git checkout foo^{commit}"Jonathan Nieder, Feb 8, 2011
  12. Jonathan NiederFeb 8, 2011
  13. 0/3 checkout: introduce --detach synonym for "git checkout foo^{commit}"Jonathan Nieder, Feb 8, 2011
  14. 1/3 checkout: split off a function to peel away branchname argJonathan Nieder, Feb 8, 2011
  15. 2/3 checkout: introduce --detach synonym for "git checkout foo^{commit}"Jonathan Nieder, Feb 8, 2011
  16. 3/3 checkout: rearrange update_refs_for_switch for clarityJonathan Nieder, Feb 8, 2011
  17. Heiko VoigtFeb 7, 2011
  18. Martin von ZweigbergkFeb 8, 2011

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