On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> We used to just say "topic is not a rev nor path" and failed when the user
> said "git checkout topic". And the magic kicks in when there is only one
> "remotes/*/topic".
>
> Because this cannot be any request other than to check out a local branch
> "topic", and because there is no place more sensible than the "topic"
> taken from the "origin" (as that is the sole place that has "topic"), it
> dwims as a shorthand for "checkout -b topic origin/topic" and tells you
> that it did so.
OK. That is probably sensible.
I don't think any improvement on the detached head message should
presume on this though.
And it might be a good idea to say explicitly that what happened is the
creation of a detached HEAD, like in:
diff --git a/builtin-checkout.c b/builtin-checkout.c
index 5277817..c0a44d7 100644
--- a/builtin-checkout.c
+++ b/builtin-checkout.c
@@ -523,7 +523,10 @@ static void update_refs_for_switch(struct checkout_opts *opts,
REF_NODEREF, DIE_ON_ERR);
if (!opts->quiet) {
if (old->path)
- fprintf(stderr, "Note: moving to '%s' which isn't a local branch\nIf you want to create a new branch from this checkout, you may do so\n(now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:\n git checkout -b <new_branch_name>\n", new->name);
+ fprintf(stderr, "Note: '%s' isn't a local branch head: creating a detached HEAD\n"
+ "If you want to create a new branch from this checkout, you may do so\n"
+ "(now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:\n"
+ " git checkout -b <new_branch_name>\n", new->name);
describe_detached_head("HEAD is now at", new->commit);
}
}
(string split onto multiple lines for easier source reading)
I think this is important to 1) mention the notion of a branch _head_,
and 2) mention "detached HEAD" explicitly for people to be directed to
appropriate documentation. So with this change you know exactly what
happened and why.
Nicolas
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