* git branch -a now reports 'remotes/foo' rather than 'foo'?
@ 2009-05-11 2:16 Daniel Pittman
2009-05-11 5:26 ` Jay Soffian
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Daniel Pittman @ 2009-05-11 2:16 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: git
G'day. Debian recently released git 1.6.3 to unstable, so it has just
landed on my desk, and a change in the output of 'git branch' listings
is causing one of the front-ends I use to fail.
In previous versions, in a git-svn repository, I got this output to
'git branch -a':
,----[ git 1.6.2 and earlier ]
| ] git branch -a
| * master
| tags/16-1
| tags/18-1
| tags/19-2
| trunk
`----
Now, in 1.6.3, I see two different output formats:
,----[ git 1.6.3 ]
| ] git branch -a
| * master
| remotes/tags/16-1
| remotes/tags/18-1
| remotes/tags/19-2
| remotes/trunk
| ] git branch -r
| tags/16-1
| tags/18-1
| tags/19-2
| trunk
`----
The front-end I am using looks for a 'trunk' branch by name in the
output of 'git branch -a', which historically worked. Now, though, it
shows that fully qualified.
Looking at the release notes it looks like this was a deliberate change,
from this entry:
* "git-branch -r" shows HEAD symref that points at a remote branch in
interest of each tracked remote repository.
However, that isn't unambiguously clear about the change, and is pretty
light on the "why" parts. Worse, the only discussion I can find about
the change suggests that this was noticed, and there wasn't real clarity
about the background.
(See Jeff King under "[PATCH 1/2] add basic branch display tests" at [1]
for the details.)
I confess, to me, that having 'git branch -a' and 'git branch -r' emit
different values doesn't make much sense, but I suppose the upstream
code can be adapted.
I wanted to confirm that this was a deliberate change before I went to
the trouble or rewriting the front-end code however.
Regards,
Daniel
Footnotes:
[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/110564/focus=110616
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: git branch -a now reports 'remotes/foo' rather than 'foo'?
2009-05-11 2:16 git branch -a now reports 'remotes/foo' rather than 'foo'? Daniel Pittman
@ 2009-05-11 5:26 ` Jay Soffian
2009-05-11 7:01 ` Daniel Pittman
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Jay Soffian @ 2009-05-11 5:26 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Daniel Pittman; +Cc: git
On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 10:16 PM, Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net> wrote:
> The front-end I am using looks for a 'trunk' branch by name in the
> output of 'git branch -a', which historically worked. Now, though, it
> shows that fully qualified.
>
> Looking at the release notes it looks like this was a deliberate change,
> from this entry:
>
> * "git-branch -r" shows HEAD symref that points at a remote branch in
> interest of each tracked remote repository.
>
> However, that isn't unambiguously clear about the change, and is pretty
> light on the "why" parts. Worse, the only discussion I can find about
> the change suggests that this was noticed, and there wasn't real clarity
> about the background.
>
> (See Jeff King under "[PATCH 1/2] add basic branch display tests" at [1]
> for the details.)
>
>
> I confess, to me, that having 'git branch -a' and 'git branch -r' emit
> different values doesn't make much sense, but I suppose the upstream
> code can be adapted.
>
> I wanted to confirm that this was a deliberate change before I went to
> the trouble or rewriting the front-end code however.
Yes, the change was deliberate. Commit 209d336 (builtin-branch:
improve output when displaying remote branches, 2009-02-13) has more
details:
When displaying local and remote branches, prefix the remote branch
names with "remotes/" to make the remote branches clear from the local
branches. If displaying only the remote branches, the prefix is not
shown since it would be redundant.
When you fix your front-end, I suggest you stop parsing git branch's
output. It is a so-called porcelain command, as opposed to a plumbing
command, and so its output is subject to change. You probably want to
use the for-each-ref command instead.
j.
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: git branch -a now reports 'remotes/foo' rather than 'foo'?
2009-05-11 5:26 ` Jay Soffian
@ 2009-05-11 7:01 ` Daniel Pittman
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Daniel Pittman @ 2009-05-11 7:01 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: git
Jay Soffian <jaysoffian@gmail.com> writes:
> On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 10:16 PM, Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net> wrote:
>> The front-end I am using looks for a 'trunk' branch by name in the
>> output of 'git branch -a', which historically worked. Now, though, it
>> shows that fully qualified.
[...]
>> I wanted to confirm that this was a deliberate change before I went to
>> the trouble or rewriting the front-end code however.
>
> Yes, the change was deliberate. Commit 209d336 (builtin-branch:
> improve output when displaying remote branches, 2009-02-13) has more
> details:
>
> When displaying local and remote branches, prefix the remote
> branch names with "remotes/" to make the remote branches clear
> from the local branches.
Isn't the use of colour sufficient to do this? Ah, well. That horse,
I think, has bolted, and my own end-users thoughts about the incoherence
are, I suspect, of little relevance now.
> If displaying only the remote branches, the prefix is not shown
> since it would be redundant.
>
> When you fix your front-end, I suggest you stop parsing git branch's
> output. It is a so-called porcelain command, as opposed to a plumbing
> command, and so its output is subject to change. You probably want to
> use the for-each-ref command instead.
It isn't my front-end, but I shall take a look and see if I can send
upstream a suitable patch. Thanks for the advice.
Regards,
Daniel
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
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