Re: master^ is not a local branch -- huh?!?

From

Nicolas Pitre <nico@fluxnic.net>

Date

Jan 29, 2010, 22:34 UTC

Message-ID

<alpine.LFD.2.00.1001291716070.1681@xanadu.home>

In-Reply-To

<7viqakh8ty.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> We used to just say "topic is not a rev nor path" and failed when the user
> said "git checkout topic".  And the magic kicks in when there is only one
> "remotes/*/topic".
> 
> Because this cannot be any request other than to check out a local branch
> "topic", and because there is no place more sensible than the "topic"
> taken from the "origin" (as that is the sole place that has "topic"), it
> dwims as a shorthand for "checkout -b topic origin/topic" and tells you
> that it did so.

OK.  That is probably sensible.

diff --git a/builtin-checkout.c b/builtin-checkout.c
index 5277817..c0a44d7 100644
--- a/builtin-checkout.c
+++ b/builtin-checkout.c
@@ -523,7 +523,10 @@ static void update_refs_for_switch(struct checkout_opts *opts,
 			   REF_NODEREF, DIE_ON_ERR);
 		if (!opts->quiet) {
 			if (old->path)
-				fprintf(stderr, "Note: moving to '%s' which isn't a local branch\nIf you want to create a new branch from this checkout, you may do so\n(now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:\n  git checkout -b <new_branch_name>\n", new->name);
+				fprintf(stderr, "Note: '%s' isn't a local branch head: creating a detached HEAD\n"
+						"If you want to create a new branch from this checkout, you may do so\n"
+						"(now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:\n"
+						"  git checkout -b <new_branch_name>\n", new->name);
 			describe_detached_head("HEAD is now at", new->commit);
 		}
 	}

(string split onto multiple lines for easier source reading)

I think this is important to 1) mention the notion of a branch _head_, 
and 2) mention "detached HEAD" explicitly for people to be directed to 
appropriate documentation.  So with this change you know exactly what 
happened and why.


Nicolas