Re: [PATCH v2 4/4] init: provide useful advice about init.defaultBranch

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 23, 2020, 23:53 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq8sarljfn.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <bccef953913da629057b3e9b211bc54081fa4475.1606173607.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> +static const char default_branch_name_advice[] = N_(
> +"Using '%s' as the name for the initial branch. This default branch name\n"
> +"is subject to change. To configure the initial branch name to use in all\n"
> +"of your new repositories, run:\n"

I think this is good, assuming that "subject to change" covers the case where we end up doing nothing after all. I'd feel safer if we said "s/is subject to change/may change in the future/", but this is not a strong preference.

Show 6 quoted lines

> +"\n"
> +"\tgit config --global init.defaultBranch <name>\n"
> +"\n"
> +"Common names are 'main', 'trunk' and 'development'. If you merely wish\n"
> +"to suppress this warning, you can also use the current default branch\n"
> +"name. The current branch can be renamed via this command:\n"

I think this is worse than the previous one. Those who merely wish to suppress the message without wanting to commit to a particular name (i.e. they just want to take whatever the default we give them) would be mislead and be frozen in time forever. We do not give "I'll just accept the default of the day" choice, and that is OK, but we want to be clear about it, which is why I've kept raising this as an issue.

    To configure the initial branch name to use in all of your new
    repositories and squelch this message, run:

may be better---it makes it clear that the offered two choices are (1) do nothing and see this message every time, or (2) commit to a name and not see this message again.

Thanks.