Re: Making git disappear when talking about my code (was: Re: GIT vs Other: Need argument)

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: Apr 25, 2007, 14:55 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.98.0704250751330.9964@woody.linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <87k5w07dft.wl%cworth@cworth.org>

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007, Carl Worth wrote:

> 
> Oops. I just noticed that that last command is wrong. Instead of "git
> checkout --track -b <branch>" that should of course be "git checkout
> --track -b <branch> origin/<branch>".

No, it really should be

	git branch --track newbranch origin/oldbranch

followed by

	git checkout newbranch

and then it's not so hard. It's two commands, but it's two _simpler_ commands, that make sense on their own. Don't use the complex version: it's a "expert mode" command that just knows how to do both.

Alternatively, we *could* make just

	git checkout --track branch

be a shorthand for

	git checkout --track -b branch origin/branch

when "branch" doesn't exist, but origin/branch does. With the "--track", it's already unambiguous (you cannot track a detached head, so we know we want a branch.

			Linus