git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

GUI and detatched HEAD (was Re: Deleting remote branch pointed by remote HEAD)

From
Daniel Barkalow <barkalow@iabervon.org>
Date
Jan 21, 2009, 22:56 UTC
Message-ID
<alpine.LNX.1.00.0901211705280.19665@iabervon.org>
In-Reply-To
<slrngnedkm.apk.sitaramc@sitaramc.homelinux.net>
On Wed, 21 Jan 2009, Sitaram Chamarty wrote:
Show 17 quoted lines
> On 2009-01-21, Marc-André Lureau <marcandre.lureau@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I deleted a remote branch which was pointed by HEAD, this way: "git
> > push origin :master"
> >
> > Then for almost every git command, I get this error: "error:
> > refs/remotes/origin/HEAD points nowhere!".
> >
> > I found this situation non-friendly. Fortunately, I could understand
> > what's going on. But a new user might be confused.
> 
> That's a pretty advanced command for a beginner.  I have
> people who're only using the GUI (in the presumption that it
> will be less confusing or less powerful or whatever) and
> have managed to right click on a remote branch, choose
> "checkout this branch" and have made commits on it without
> knowing they're not on any branch!

I wonder if the GUI could handle this in a way that users would understand. This is qualitively like following a link to a spreadsheet in your web browser, having the browser launch your office suite and load the spreadsheet off the web; now you're interacting with a spreadsheet where you obviously can't save to the original location (which is some web site) and haven't provided a local filename to save as.

I think the right thing would be to show it as "(Untitled)" and have a prominant button to make a real saved branch out of it. There's nothing all that strange about having a current "document" that has no filename yet; the strange thing is that a version control system has this capability.

	-Daniel
*This .sig left intentionally blank*
Previous: Sitaram ChamartyNext: Sitaram Chamarty
Message 23 of 24 in “Deleting remote branch pointed by remote HEAD”
  1. Marc-André LureauJan 21, 2009
  2. Michael J GruberJan 21, 2009
  3. Marc-André LureauJan 21, 2009
  4. Michael J GruberJan 21, 2009
  5. Marc-André LureauJan 21, 2009
  6. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  7. Daniel BarkalowJan 21, 2009
  8. Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.Jan 21, 2009
  9. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  10. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  11. Daniel BarkalowJan 21, 2009
  12. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  13. Felipe ContrerasMar 12, 2009
  14. Jeff KingMar 12, 2009
  15. Felipe ContrerasMar 12, 2009
  16. Jeff KingMar 12, 2009
  17. Junio C HamanoJan 21, 2009
  18. Felipe ContrerasJan 21, 2009
  19. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  20. Felipe ContrerasJan 21, 2009
  21. Adeodato SimóJan 21, 2009
  22. Sitaram ChamartyJan 21, 2009
  23. GUI and detatched HEAD (was Re: Deleting remote branch pointed by remote HEAD)Daniel Barkalow, Jan 21, 2009
  24. Sitaram ChamartyJan 22, 2009

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.