Re: [PATCH 1/5] doc: git-checkout: clarify intro

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Aug 28, 2025, 23:44 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa53jqaen.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <f440d0e4-0754-49a0-9677-980f60a5dbf5@app.fastmail.com>

"Julia Evans" <julia@jvns.ca> writes:

Show 16 quoted lines

>> I think we've dropped the bit about the default interpretation of "git
>> checkout <something>". Maybe
>>
>>     When you run `git checkout <something>`, Git tries to guess whether
>>     `<something>` is intended to be a branch, a commit, or a set of file(s),
>>     and then switches branches, switches commits, or restores the files.
>>
>>     By default, Git interprets `<something>` as a _<tree-ish>_.
>>     [explain what choosing a tree-ish means for the user?]
>>
>>     [Your notes on disambiguation as before]
>
> Thanks, will fix. Though I don't think it's accurate that
> Git will treat <something> as a <tree-ish> in this context, since
> `git checkout <tree>` is not valid. Will find a different wording.
> (I get "fatal: Cannot switch branch to a non-commit")

True. "git checkout foo" is disambiguated by seeing if 'foo' can be interpreted as a commit-ish, and if not, if there is a path 'foo' in the working tree. Otherwise we'd get an ambiguity error. A commit-ish that is nameed by giving a branch name and other commit-ish then trigger a bit different codepaths (the former results in checking out a branch, the latter detached HEAD).