# Re: why is git destructive by default? (i suggest it not be!)

2 messages from 2008-06-24 to 2008-06-24. Participants: Teemu Likonen.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/14115

## Teemu Likonen, 2008-06-24 04:59

Subject: Re: why is git destructive by default? (i suggest it not be!)
Message-ID: <20080624045937.GA3125@mithlond.arda.local>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080624045937.GA3125%40mithlond.arda.local

```
David Jeske wrote (2008-06-24 01:47 -0000):

> As a new user, I'm finding git difficult to trust, because there are
> operations which are destructive by default and capable of
> inadvertently throwing hours or days of work into the bit bucket.

I'm also quite new and I actually feel safe using git, and it's because
of reflog. No matter what I do (except manual reflog expire) I can see
where I was before with command

  git log --walk-reflogs

and get everything back. I have needed it a couple of times. So the
safety net is there, one just has to learn to trust it. :-)

Git is much safer than the standard Unix tools like rm, mv and cp.

```

## Teemu Likonen, 2008-06-24 05:43

Subject: Re: why is git destructive by default? (i suggest it not be!)
Message-ID: <20080624054313.GB3125@mithlond.arda.local>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20080624054313.GB3125%40mithlond.arda.local
In-Reply-To: <e80d075a0806232201o3933d154he2b570986604c30a@mail.gmail.com>

```
David Jeske wrote (2008-06-23 22:01 -0700):

> On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 9:59 PM, Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi>
> wrote:
> 
> > I'm also quite new and I actually feel safe using git, and it's
> > because of reflog. No matter what I do (except manual reflog expire)
> > I can see where I was before with command
> >
> >  git log --walk-reflogs
> 
> 
> Perhaps I'm misunderstanding how to read it, but how do you tell where
> a branch was from the reflog if you inadvertantly moved it?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean but I try to explain. In git
branches are nothing but named pointers to certain commit. If you "move
a branch" you actually rename the pointer, nothing more. With command

  git log --walk-reflogs --all

you can see everything in your reflog. When branches are moved (i.e.,
renamed) in "git log --walk-reflogs" output it shows like this:

  commit 269f10bca2273c1cf77831d5e23c6e0361217697
  Reflog: refs/heads/master@{2008-06-24 08:15:56 +0300} (Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi>)
  Reflog message: Branch: renamed refs/heads/master to refs/heads/testbranch
  Author: Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi>
  Date:   2008-03-25 19:10:40 +0200
  
  [commit message]

See the "Reflog message" field above. It tells what happened. The
"Reflog" field tells when it happened. If I later remove this
"testbranch" I can browse the reflog and create this branch (i.e.
a pointer) again with command "git branch testbranch 269f10bca". The
269f10bca comes from the commit ID of the above log item.

```