# Re: Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails 4 messages from 2016-10-16 to 2016-10-17. Participants: Martin Langhoff, Kevin Daudt, Duy Nguyen. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/44301 ## Martin Langhoff, 2016-10-14 21:06 Subject: Re: Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CACPiFCJFXGmsJX97kQuA2h3trVX7L3SacwKrD4mpEU5SPxkLAA%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20161014205842.GA6350@ikke.info> ``` On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 4:58 PM, Kevin Daudt wrote: > Correct, this only works when it's unambiguous what branch you actually > mean. That's not surprising, but there isn't a warning. IMHO, finding several branch matches is a strong indication that it'll be worth reporting to the user that the DWIM machinery got hits, but couldn't work it out. I get that process is not geared towards making a friendly msg easy, but we could print to stderr something like: "branch" matches more than one candidate ref, cannot choose automatically. If you mean to check out a branch, try git branch command. If you mean to check out a file, use -- before the pathname to disambiguate. and then continue with execution. With a bit of wordsmithing, the msg can be made to be helpful in the various failure modes. cheers, m -- martin.langhoff@gmail.com - ask interesting questions ~ http://linkedin.com/in/martinlanghoff - don't be distracted ~ http://github.com/martin-langhoff by shiny stuff ``` ## Kevin Daudt, 2016-10-14 20:58 Subject: Re: Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails Message-ID: <20161014205842.GA6350@ikke.info> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20161014205842.GA6350%40ikke.info In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 04:25:49PM -0400, Martin Langhoff wrote: > In a (private) repo project I have, I recently tried (and failed) to do: > > git checkout v4.1-support > > getting a "pathspec did not match any files known to git" error. > > There's an origin/v4.1-support, there is no v4.1-support "local" > branch. Creating the tracking branch explicitly worked. > > Other similar branches in existence upstream did work. Autocomplete > matched git's own behaviour for this; where git checkout foo woudn't > work, autocomplete would not offer a completion. > > Why is this? > > One theory I have not explored is that I have other remotes, and some > have a v4.1-support branch. If that's the case, the error message is > not very helpful, and could be improved. > > git --version > 2.7.4 > > DWIM in git is remarkably good, even addictive... when it works :-) > > cheers, > Correct, this only works when it's unambiguous what branch you actually mean. if remote_a/branch and remote_b/branch exists, git cannot guess which one you actually mean. The message you get is because git checkout can be followed by several things. Either a branch/commit or a file. Git complaining it cannot find a file with that name is because it has exhausted all other options. I do agree that message could be a bit more clear. ``` ## Martin Langhoff, 2016-10-14 20:25 Subject: Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CACPiFC%2B8%2BwVEcDt9JZgTW1dwCCFKszyXD6ysDxNQorcNkom7Lw%40mail.gmail.com ``` In a (private) repo project I have, I recently tried (and failed) to do: git checkout v4.1-support getting a "pathspec did not match any files known to git" error. There's an origin/v4.1-support, there is no v4.1-support "local" branch. Creating the tracking branch explicitly worked. Other similar branches in existence upstream did work. Autocomplete matched git's own behaviour for this; where git checkout foo woudn't work, autocomplete would not offer a completion. Why is this? One theory I have not explored is that I have other remotes, and some have a v4.1-support branch. If that's the case, the error message is not very helpful, and could be improved. git --version 2.7.4 DWIM in git is remarkably good, even addictive... when it works :-) cheers, m -- martin.langhoff@gmail.com - ask interesting questions ~ http://linkedin.com/in/martinlanghoff - don't be distracted ~ http://github.com/martin-langhoff by shiny stuff ``` ## Duy Nguyen, 2016-10-17 11:39 Subject: Re: Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CACsJy8A252mU8hgp2d%2BLQ8vku1w-sL9eP%3Dt%3DG1AX61WJi8SUfA%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 4:06 AM, Martin Langhoff wrote: > On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 4:58 PM, Kevin Daudt wrote: >> Correct, this only works when it's unambiguous what branch you actually >> mean. > > That's not surprising, but there isn't a warning. IMHO, finding > several branch matches is a strong indication that it'll be worth > reporting to the user that the DWIM machinery got hits, but couldn't > work it out. > > I get that process is not geared towards making a friendly msg easy, > but we could print to stderr something like: > > "branch" matches more than one candidate ref, cannot choose automatically. > If you mean to check out a branch, try git branch command. > If you mean to check out a file, use -- before the pathname to > disambiguate. Or even better, list all ambiguous candidates like Jeff did for ambiguous short SHA-1 in 1ffa26c (get_short_sha1: list ambiguous objects on error - 2016-09-26).There were a few occasions I was confused by ambiguous refs and displaying them all would help me see what problem was much faster. -- Duy ```