Re: Prevent switching branches when local modifications exist

> Christoph Bartoschek <ponto@pontohonk.de> writes:
> 
>> Hi,
>>
>> how can I prevent that git allows me to switch branches when there are
>> uncommited local modifications?
>>
>> [14.1 (steiner_topo)]$ git checkout -b ergo
>> Switched to a new branch 'ergo'
>> [14.1 (ergo)]$ echo blub >> src/invtree.C
>> [14.1 (ergo)]$ git checkout steiner_topo
>> M       src/invtree.C
>> Switched to branch 'steiner_topo'
>> [14.1 (steiner_topo)]$
>>
>> How can the last checkout be prevented?
> 
> The question sounds similar to asking "How can I prevent 'rm -r'
> from removing anything when I type it in my home directory."  It is
> useful for 'rm -r' to remove everything recursively, but sometimes
> you would want to prevent you from running it by mistake in a wrong
> place. In general, there is no good direct solution for that.
> 
> A few usual ways people deal with this kind of issue are (1) to make
> it easier to notice that they are "in a wrong place" (e.g. by having
> the current directory in their prompt to avoid 'rm -r' in $HOME) and
> training themselves to be careful, (2) to make it possible to
> recover if that happens by mistake (e.g. by having .snapshot on the
> filer).
> 
> For "checkout", an approach that corresponds to (1) is to have
> branches and status in the prompt (available from git-completion).
> Fortunately for (2) there isn't anything special necessary, as
> checking out a different branch with "git checkout" does not lose
> information, after creating and checking out the steiner_topo
> branch, you can use checkout again to come back to ergo branch.