Re: [PATCH 2/2] git-rebase.txt: clarify that --abort checks out <branch>

From: Martin von Zweigbergk <martin.von.zweigbergk@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 6, 2011, 02:19 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1107052148370.7799@debian>
In-Reply-To: <1309902196.31762.30.camel@drew-northup.unet.maine.edu>

On Tue, 5 Jul 2011, Drew Northup wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> 
> On Fri, 2011-07-01 at 22:38 -0400, Martin von Zweigbergk wrote:
> > The description for 'git rebase --abort' currently says:
> > 
> >     Restore the original branch and abort the rebase operation.
> > 
> > The "restore" can be misinterpreted to imply that the original branch
> > was somehow in a broken state during the rebase operation. 
> 
> When you are in the middle of a rebase you _are_not_on_any_branch_. This
> is why "Restore the original branch" is used.

Are you saying that something (what?) in "Abort the rebase operation and check out <branch>." suggests to the user that he/she _is_ on some branch?

Show 11 quoted lines

> > It is also
> > not completely clear what "the original branch" is --- is it the
> > branch that was checked out before the rebase operation was called or
> > is the the branch that is being rebased (it is the latter)? Although
> > both issues are made clear in the DESCRIPTION section, let us also
> > make the entry in the OPTIONS secion more clear, like so:
> > 
> >     Abort the rebase operation and check out <branch>.
> 
> So when I rebase I'm really checking out another branch--which, just to
> increase confusion, doesn't actually exist?

Same question as above: what makes it sound like rebase is checking out another branch?

> What if there isn't another
> branch (rebase -i on a single-branch repo, for instance)? This doesn't
> solve the problem.

That reminds me that <branch> may not have been specified. How about saying things more explicitly like this?

  Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original branch. If
  <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was started, then
  HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD will be reset to
  where it was when the rebase operation was started.

Does phrasing it as "reset HEAD to" instead of "check out" also address your concern about "checking out another branch"?

Martin