Re: "git checkout foo" is getting confused by folder named "foo"

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@grenoble-inp.fr>
Date: Sep 25, 2013, 19:12 UTC
Message-ID: <vpqzjr0pvfn.fsf@anie.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <CAEQewpoD2VRVtpEyG121TqAptoYfEXxt57CCthBX_EfN7LU0fQ@mail.gmail.com>

Jona Christopher Sahnwaldt <jc@sahnwaldt.de> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> Hi everyone,
>
> tl;dr: The short form "git checkout foo" is a mess. There's simply too
> much "DWIM" magic going on. There are no comprehensible rules how it
> decides if "foo" is a pathspec or a refspec.

There is a very simple rule:

What's on the left hand side of -- are refs, what's on the right hand side are paths.

When you don't use --, then Git tries to guess, and fails whenever there's an ambiguity.

>> OK, what happens is that "git checkout wiktionary" is actually a
>> shorthand for "git checkout -b wiktionary --track origin/wiktionary".
>
> No, it isn't.

What I meant was that the short form advised by people were _meant_ to be a shorthand.

> Let's consider several scenarios:

I don't get your point. Is the overly long list a way of complaining? Are you suggesting a change? What do you think about the change I'm proposing?

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