Re: for newbs = little exercise / tutorial / warmup for windows and other non-sophisticated new Git users :-) [Scanned]

From: Sitaram Chamarty <sitaramc@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 31, 2008, 02:22 UTC
Message-ID: <slrnglllr8.kdq.sitaramc@sitaramc.homelinux.net>
In-Reply-To: <BB5F02FD3789B54E8964D38D6775E718242D33@ALTMORE-SVR.altmore.local>

On 2008-12-30, Conor Rafferty <conor.rafferty@altmore.co.uk> wrote:

[re-arranged some of the quotes; it's not in the same order as in your original email...]

> Even in clearcase this was a cinch.

Hey there's no need to use swear words ;-)

> Is there anyone who can see anyway to do this simply, without a script,
> without creating a branch ?

You'll have to unlearn this resistance to creating branches. I've never used clearcase, but people tell me it is expensive to create branches and/or merge them later -- almost a project in itself perhaps?

In git, however, creating a branch is as cheap as creating a tag, so why not go with the flow until you're a little more familiar with it?

> Personally I suspect "$ git checkout <version> ." is what should be

leave out the "." is all you needed to do.

> doing this (I have confidence in saying this because it seems to want to
> do this, and does it right at least half the time). But no-one wants to
> admit to the remotest possibility that it might be off ....

Because it's not off :-) You're using an unusual construct that is not often used. (I've done path checkout of one or a few files, but not the whole "." ever). So it took people time to analyse what was happening -- such as suggesting you use "git ls-files -s" to see what's in the index at each stage.

May I ask where you got the idea that "." is needed? We need to fix that source too ;-)

> In any case, a bunch of smart guys like you should be able to knock this
> functionality together in hours, if you put your mind to it.

> I know you guys have put a lot into this project and for many of you it
> defines who you are 
> - but if you want ppl out there in the user world to take this stuff on,
> its gotta work for them

While I applaud your efforts to try and understand everything in one long weekend, you'd have more fun if you spaced it out a bit :-)

I'll also say that "ppl out there in the user world" will not experiment the way you have -- they'll follow a basic set of commands that work.

They'll even (gasp!) use the GUI. Believe me the GUIs are pretty nice, though it won't let you checkout a tag (you can checkout a branch, but not a tag -- because this gets you a detached head which is a little too advanced for normal folks I guess).

In other words, you're combining newbie and expert too fast...

Finally, I heartily recommend reading the following article: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Happy_Merge_Day!.aspx

If the hints in the article are not enough for you to figure out this is about clearcase read the comments :-)