From: Junio C Hamano Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:07:40 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH v6] doc: add an explanation of Git's data model Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <2265ecb5-b0ba-4a28-904f-186ef5318562@app.fastmail.com> "Julia Evans" writes: > From my point of view as a Git user one of Git's biggest strengths is its > flexibility; because branches _can_ be moved to point at a different > commit at any time in various ways (via `git reset --hard`, `git rebase`, or > `git commit --amend`), there's a lot of flexibility in how someone can > choose to use Git, including never using branches at all. > (the flexibility is also one of the things that makes Git hard of course :) ) > > So I'd prefer to keep editorializing about what a branch "means" > to a minimum. OK. If you go to such an extreme and make readers oblivious to what a branch means, some of the sanity measures we have (e.g., a branch ref will never point at anything but a commit object, not even a commit-ish tag is allowed) would become "unnecessary nuisance" to them. In other words, as I hinted, it takes a delicate balancing act.