Steve Diver <squelch2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Would it be a safe assumption to describe a 'detached HEAD' state as
> being synonymous with a (local) personal scratchpad or temporary
> workspace based on and from the original committed object?
A commonly used term since we started discussing the detached HEAD late
2006 (v1.5.0 timeframe) is a "temporary branch" or a "throw-away" branch.
See c847f53 (Detached HEAD (experimental), 2007-01-01), for example.
I do not think we need yet another term "scratchpad" for this, but what is
important is that both introductory and full documentation explain the
detached HEAD well.
Currently we say:
Detached HEAD
-------------
It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is
not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious
example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release
point, like this:
------------
$ git checkout v2.6.18
------------
Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to
create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from
version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the
current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag
(`v2.6.18` in the example above).
If read carefully (some may argue that it does not need a very careful
reading to get it, though), this hints that "detached HEAD" state is a
substitute for using a temporary branch, but it may not be strong enough.
I thought that a documentation update in this area was already planned?
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