Dun Peal venit, vidit, dixit 01.12.2010 21:16: > On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 1:51 PM, Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> The idea is this: when you check out a tag or a remote-tracking >> branch, it is not to make changes to it. Tags are unchanging, >> remote-tracking branches track remote state that the user does not >> directly control. > > Yes, users checkout a release tag just so they can build parts of it. > There's definitely no intention of creating new changes on top of > them, and if there is then it should properly be a head (branch). > > I guess that's exactly the use-case for detached HEAD, so I guess the > answer is that we should all stop being afraid of that superficially > scary term. It's really one of the most useful features of git (as Jonathan explained). There are two things which make it scary: - The name. We could call it differently (free head, unbound head, branchless head, west coast head...). - The garbage collection. It's easy to commit on top of a detached head by mistake, and once you switch away from that, it's difficult to find it again (reflog) and easy to lose (gc/prune). Though the "throw-away" nature of detached heads is a useful feature, we could possibly help users who commit on top of them better. Michael -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html