Re: Feature request: prevent push -f from pushing all branches at once

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@grenoble-inp.fr>
Date: Jul 4, 2013, 08:06 UTC
Message-ID: <vpq7gh67nq4.fsf@anie.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <ADE9FE42-FC10-4976-8E6A-290B101DD17A@gmail.com>

Dany <nessup@gmail.com> writes:

> Again, I think the case where one intends to force push many branches
> is certainly not as common as the case where one intends to force push
> one branch, so why does git's default behavior leave the user in the
> position of fscking himself over pretty badly?

I don't think the case of "force push" is very different from the "non-force push". If you're surprised that "git push -f" pushes everything, most likely you didn't want a plain "git push" to push everything either.

There are already several measures against this. The first is mentionned in Jonathan's message: Git 2.0 will only push one branch by default (-f or not). You can already get this behavior by setting push.default (if your Git version is too old, set it to "current" for example, read "git config --help").

Another measure is a better documentation. We've just merged the change below. In short: don't run "git push -f", but run e.g. "git push origin +master".

commit 70495b556f5685afe0e41988e42d48b2331d77a0
Author: Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>
Date:   Mon Jun 17 19:52:41 2013 +0200

    Documentation/git-push.txt: explain better cases where --force is dangerous
    
    The behavior of "git push --force" is rather clear when it updates only
    one remote ref, but running it when pushing several branches can really
    be dangerous. Warn the users a bit more and give them the alternative to
    push only one branch.
    
    Signed-off-by: Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>
    Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

diff --git a/Documentation/git-push.txt b/Documentation/git-push.txt
index 8b637d3..28a17c3 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-push.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-push.txt
@@ -124,6 +124,15 @@ no `push.default` configuration variable is set.
        not an ancestor of the local ref used to overwrite it.
        This flag disables the check.  This can cause the
        remote repository to lose commits; use it with care.
+       Note that `--force` applies to all the refs that are pushed,
+       hence using it with `push.default` set to `matching` or with
+       multiple push destinations configured with `remote.*.push`
+       may overwrite refs other than the current branch (including
+       local refs that are strictly behind their remote counterpart).
+       To force a push to only one branch, use a `+` in front of the
+       refspec to push (e.g `git push origin +master` to force a push
+       to the `master` branch). See the `<refspec>...` section above
+       for details.
 
 --repo=<repository>::
        This option is only relevant if no <repository> argument is

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/