Re: [PATCH/RFC] builtin-checkout: suggest creating local branch when appropriate to do so

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 11:17:09PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> > $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
> > $ cd git
> > $ git checkout next
> > error: pathspec 'next' did not match any file(s) known to git.
> > To create a local branch from the same named remote branch, use
> >   git checkout -b next origin/next
> > 
> > Motivated by http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/129528
> 
> Actually, we should really think long and hard why we should not 
> automatically check out the local branch "next" in that case.  I mean, 
> really long and hard, and making sure to take user-friendliness into 
> account at least as much as simplicity of implementation.

Some devil's advocate questions:

  1. How do we find "origin/next" given "next"? What are the exact
     lookup rules? Do they cover every case? Do they avoid surprising
     the user?

  2. What do we do if our lookup is ambiguous (e.g., "origin/next" and
     "foobar/next" both exist)?

  3. If our lookup does have ambiguities or corner cases, is it better
     to simply be suggesting to the user, rather than proceeding with an
     action?

-Peff