threads / discuss / 51422

Submodule "git branch" says (HEAD detached at <incorrect-commit>)

Subject: Submodule "git branch" says (HEAD detached at <incorrect-commit>)

## tl;dr

4 messages between Jul 3, 2019 and Jul 3, 2019.

replies: 3people: 2as markdown or json

Julius Smith· Jul 3, 2019, 08:28 UTC · lore

Greetings,

I have a repo with two branches A and B, say, and a submodule pointing to a repo also with two branches, say C and D. Branch A of the parent uses branch C of the submodule, while B uses D. My clone is in a state (that I've seen often) where branch A's submodule directory _appears_ to be using a commit for D when really it's a commit for C. "git branch" in the the submodule directory says "(detached from <commit-for-D>)" but this seems to be wrong. I did "git diff <commit>" in the submodule directory to show that it was the C-commit and not the D-commit as it appeared. Could "git branch" in the submodule directory be referring to the commit at the time it was first detached and not updating after a "git submodule update --init" in the parent?

Thanks,
- Julius

-- 
Julius O. Smith III <jos@ccrma.stanford.edu>

Julius Smith· Jul 3, 2019, 08:31 UTC · re: Julius Smith · lore

Re: Submodule "git branch" says (HEAD detached at <incorrect-commit>)

I should add:

> git --version

git version 2.20.1 (Apple Git-117)

On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 1:28 AM Julius Smith <jos@ccrma.stanford.edu> wrote:

Show 21 quoted lines

>
> Greetings,
>
> I have a repo with two branches A and B, say, and a submodule pointing
> to a repo also with two branches, say C and D.  Branch A of the parent
> uses branch C of the submodule, while B uses D.  My clone is in a
> state (that I've seen often) where branch A's submodule directory
> _appears_ to be using a commit for D when really it's a commit for C.
> "git branch" in the the submodule directory says "(detached from
> <commit-for-D>)" but this seems to be wrong.  I did "git diff
> <commit>" in the submodule directory to show that it was the C-commit
> and not the D-commit as it appeared.  Could "git branch" in the
> submodule directory be referring to the commit at the time it was
> first detached and not updating after a "git submodule update --init"
> in the parent?
>
> Thanks,
> - Julius
>
> --
> Julius O. Smith III <jos@ccrma.stanford.edu>

Junio C Hamano· Jul 3, 2019, 18:17 UTC · re: Julius Smith · lore

Re: Submodule "git branch" says (HEAD detached at <incorrect-commit>)

Julius Smith <jos@ccrma.stanford.edu> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> "git branch" in the the submodule directory says "(detached from
> <commit-for-D>)" but this seems to be wrong.  I did "git diff
> <commit>" in the submodule directory to show that it was the C-commit
> and not the D-commit as it appeared.  Could "git branch" in the
> submodule directory be referring to the commit at the time it was
> first detached and not updating after a "git submodule update --init"
> in the parent?

There are "detached from" and "detached at" messages. Their use was somewhat inconsistent in the older version of Git, but at least since 2.4.0 (quoting from Documentation/RelNotes/2.4.0.txt):

 * The phrasing "git branch" uses to describe a detached HEAD has been
   updated to agree with the phrasing used by "git status":

    - When HEAD is at the same commit as when it was originally
      detached, they now both show "detached at <commit object name>".

    - When HEAD has moved since it was originally detached, they now
      both show "detached from <commit object name>".

   Previously, "git branch" always used "from".

"git branch" and "git status" should be using the same language to describe the situation.

Julius Smith· Jul 3, 2019, 19:00 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: Submodule "git branch" says (HEAD detached at <incorrect-commit>)

Thanks for the explanation. So then to find out the current commit of the submodule, I should cd into the submodule directory and say "git rev-parse HEAD" or "git log -n1", etc.

Suggestion: for a moved HEAD, it would be nice to show "(detached from
<original-commit> now at <current-commit>)".

Thanks for considering, and thanks for a truly great software tool.

- Julius

On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 11:17 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 30 quoted lines

>
> Julius Smith <jos@ccrma.stanford.edu> writes:
>
> > "git branch" in the the submodule directory says "(detached from
> > <commit-for-D>)" but this seems to be wrong.  I did "git diff
> > <commit>" in the submodule directory to show that it was the C-commit
> > and not the D-commit as it appeared.  Could "git branch" in the
> > submodule directory be referring to the commit at the time it was
> > first detached and not updating after a "git submodule update --init"
> > in the parent?
>
> There are "detached from" and "detached at" messages.  Their use was
> somewhat inconsistent in the older version of Git, but at least
> since 2.4.0 (quoting from Documentation/RelNotes/2.4.0.txt):
>
>  * The phrasing "git branch" uses to describe a detached HEAD has been
>    updated to agree with the phrasing used by "git status":
>
>     - When HEAD is at the same commit as when it was originally
>       detached, they now both show "detached at <commit object name>".
>
>     - When HEAD has moved since it was originally detached, they now
>       both show "detached from <commit object name>".
>
>    Previously, "git branch" always used "from".
>
> "git branch" and "git status" should be using the same language to
> describe the situation.
>
>

-- 
Julius O. Smith III <jos@ccrma.stanford.edu>
Professor of Music and, by courtesy, Electrical Engineering
CCRMA, Stanford University
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/