Re: [PATCH v1] config/branch: state that <name>.merge is the remote ref

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 18, 2019, 01:32 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqwod26dp7.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20191016112822.1701-1-philipoakley@iee.email>

Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

>  branch.<name>.merge::
>  	Defines, together with branch.<name>.remote, the upstream branch
> -	for the given branch. It tells 'git fetch'/'git pull'/'git rebase' which
> +	for the given branch. It defines the branch name _on the remote_,
> +	which may be different from the local branch name.

While I do agree with the goal of make things more clear, I'd avoid being overly redundant and giving irrelevant information (e.g. the copy you have locally may be made under arbitrary name that is different from the name used at the remote). After all, the users do not even need to know about the remote-tracking branch to understand this naming mechanism.

Perhaps something along this line instead:

    The name of the branch at the remote `branch.<name>.remote` that
    is used as the upstream branch for the given branch.  It tells
    `git fetch`, etc., which branch to merge and ...