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

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@grenoble-inp.fr>
Date: Sep 25, 2013, 13:09 UTC
Message-ID: <vpqzjr1ujyn.fsf@anie.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <CAEQewpqbf-sWSt0GS9eXQNi0yFz5-23NcO2JWKO4OgSFv3SXdA@mail.gmail.com>

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

Show 22 quoted lines

> On 25 September 2013 04:51, David Aguilar <davvid@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Jona Christopher Sahnwaldt
>> <jc@sahnwaldt.de> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> maybe this has already been reported, but I didn't find it in the mail archive.
>>>
>>> If I understand correctly, after I clone a repo, I should be able to
>>> switch to branch foo just by running
>>>
>>> git checkout foo
>>>
>>> This doesn't seem to work if a folder called "foo" exists in the root
>>> of the repo.
>>
>> git checkout foo --
>
> Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn't work for me. With both
> 1.7.9.5 and 1.8.3.2, I get this:
>
> $ git checkout wiktionary --
> fatal: invalid reference: wiktionary

OK, what happens is that "git checkout wiktionary" is actually a shorthand for "git checkout -b wiktionary --track origin/wiktionary".

In other words, it does not only "checkout" the branch, but it creates a local branch with the right name, and checks it out.

The -- disables this shorthand. I'd consider this as a bug. I've just sent a patch to try to fix this.

Show 5 quoted lines

> When I try the full branch name:
>
> $ git checkout origin/wiktionary --
> Note: checking out 'origin/wiktionary'.
> You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can [...]

This actually checks out the right commit, but does not create a local branch. That's not a very desirable solution.

In short, this should do the trick:

  git checkout -b wiktionary --track origin/wiktionary

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