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

From: Nicolas Pitre <nico@fluxnic.net>
Date: Jan 30, 2010, 05:05 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1001292352540.1681@xanadu.home>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1001292305500.1681@xanadu.home>

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, Nicolas Pitre wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, Mark Lodato wrote:
> 
> > This discussion brings up another good point: The main worry about a
> > detached head is losing commits.  Back in 2008, it was suggested to
> > have a warning when committing on a detached HEAD:
> > 
> > http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/git/2008/9/2/3169744
> > 
> > This was before the advice system, so folks complained about it
> > getting in the way, and it was never implemented.  Since we now have a
> > way to easily turn off the warning, perhaps we should bring this topic
> > up again (probably as a separate thread.)
> 
> Possibly.  I don't like the message proposed in that patch though.  
> Since the warning when actually detaching HEAD is about to become way 
> more prominent, the per-commit warning doesn't have to be that noisy 
> anymore.

Thinking more about it, I still consider that making 'git commit' more noisy is the wrong approach. Again, the problem is not about making commits on a detached HEAD. but rather about losing those commits at the next 'git checkout'. Probably a warning should be made when that checkout is attempted after one or more commits were made on a detached HEAD instead, and refuse the checkout by default unless it is forced (-f is already taken for some other force meaning). The warning should say how not to lose those commits by suggesting a branch creation, or give the hint for performing the checkout anyway.

Nicolas