Re: changing the experimental 'git switch'
- From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
- Date
- Oct 24, 2021, 20:27 UTC
- Message-ID
- <xmqqwnm2418p.fsf@gitster.g>
- In-Reply-To
- <da952e81-70f9-886b-42ff-2ec850f55fa0@mfriebe.de>
Martin <git@mfriebe.de> writes:
Show 11 quoted lines
> So one could do > git switch --settings-from <branch-with-reflog-and-conf> --create > <new-branch> <commit> > git switch -s <branch-with-reflog-and-conf> -c <new-branch> <commit> > > "settings-from" is just an example, there may be better names for > it. Ideally not starting with a "c". > > And using a name different from "copy" may be more accurate, because > unless it is created on the same one <commit> to which the > <branch-with-reflog-and-conf> points, then its at best partially copied.
I like the "copy the settings from this other branch when creating this new branch" as a concept.
One thing that I find iffy is the reflog. Even with the current "create a new branch NEW, pointing at the same commit, tracking the same remote-tracking branch, having the same branch description, and pretending to have come along the same trajectory, out of this original branch OLD", I actually find that the copyng of reflog is utterly questionable. Before that operation, the new branch did not exist, hence NEW@{4.days.ago} shouldn't say the same thing as OLD@{4.days.ago} for the branch NEW that was created like so just a minute ago.
If you generalize the operation to allow starting the new branch at a different commit, it becomes even more strange to copy the reflog of the "original" branch, which is not even the original for this new branch.
Another thing nobody seems to have brought up is the branch description. We copy everything under branch.OLD.* to branch.NEW.* and end up copying it from OLD to NEW, but I think that is also a nonsense operation.
So, it probably makes sense to be more selective that what are sensibly copied and what are not. Reflog most likely does not belong to the "sensibly copyable" set. Tracking info most likely does. Among various configuration in branch.OLD.*, there may be things like description that are not sensibly copyable.