# Re: Cleaning up git user-interface warts

4 messages from 2006-11-16 to 2006-11-20. Participants: Shawn Pearce, Horst H. von Brand, Junio C Hamano, Jakub Narebski.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/43240

## Junio C Hamano, 2006-11-16 11:47

Subject: Re: Cleaning up git user-interface warts
Message-ID: <7vslgjaa0c.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vslgjaa0c.fsf%40assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net
In-Reply-To: <7v7ixvbq80.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>

```
Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> writes:

> Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@xs4all.nl> writes:
>
>> [hanwen@haring y]$ git pull ../x
>> fatal: Needed a single revision
>> Pulling into a black hole?

Having said all that, I happen to think that this particular
case of pulling into void could deserve to be special cased to
pretend it is a fast forward (after all, nothingness is an
ancestor of anything), if only to make new people's first
experience more pleasant.

Working from nothingness is something not usually done in
everyday work, so from practical and technical point of view it
does not add much _real_ value to the people who actually uses
the system, but nevertheless, new people typically start
learning the system from either cloned repository (which I
believe is covered by the existing tools fairly well) or
emptiness (which bitten us here in a bad way), and making the
first experience more pleasnt to new people have a positive
value of flattening the learning curve.

So please consider that this is classified as a bug.

```

## Horst H. von Brand, 2006-11-20 19:44

Subject: Re: Cleaning up git user-interface warts
Message-ID: <200611201944.kAKJiCAw014973@laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200611201944.kAKJiCAw014973%40laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl
In-Reply-To: <junkio@cox.net>

```
Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> wrote:
> Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> writes:
> > Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@xs4all.nl> writes:
> >
> >> [hanwen@haring y]$ git pull ../x
> >> fatal: Needed a single revision
> >> Pulling into a black hole?
> 
> Having said all that, I happen to think that this particular
> case of pulling into void could deserve to be special cased to
> pretend it is a fast forward (after all, nothingness is an
> ancestor of anything), if only to make new people's first
> experience more pleasant.

If you make pushing into an empty repository work also, you fix the case of
"create an empty repo for somebody, let them fill it up remotely later".

[...]

> So please consider that this is classified as a bug.

Thanks!
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                    Fono: +56 32 2654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria             +56 32 2654239

```

## Shawn Pearce, 2006-11-20 19:46

Subject: Re: Cleaning up git user-interface warts
Message-ID: <20061120194637.GB1498@spearce.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20061120194637.GB1498%40spearce.org
In-Reply-To: <200611201944.kAKJiCAw014973@laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl>

```
"Horst H. von Brand" <vonbrand@inf.utfsm.cl> wrote:
> If you make pushing into an empty repository work also, you fix the case of
> "create an empty repo for somebody, let them fill it up remotely later".

This seems to work just fine now.  I do it all of the time.

-- 

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2006-11-20 20:02

Subject: Re: Cleaning up git user-interface warts
Message-ID: <ejt1hi$niu$1@sea.gmane.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/ejt1hi%24niu%241%40sea.gmane.org
In-Reply-To: <200611201944.kAKJiCAw014973@laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl>

```
Horst H. von Brand wrote:
> Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> wrote:
>> Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> writes:
>>> Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@xs4all.nl> writes:
>>>
>>>> [hanwen@haring y]$ git pull ../x
>>>> fatal: Needed a single revision
>>>> Pulling into a black hole?
>> 
>> Having said all that, I happen to think that this particular
>> case of pulling into void could deserve to be special cased to
>> pretend it is a fast forward (after all, nothingness is an
>> ancestor of anything), if only to make new people's first
>> experience more pleasant.
> 
> If you make pushing into an empty repository work also, you fix the case of
> "create an empty repo for somebody, let them fill it up remotely later".

That was only the _pull_ which didn't work in empty repo.
Fetch and push worked (and work) just fine with empty repo.

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Warsaw, Poland
ShadeHawk on #git


```
