Karl Hasselström <kha@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes: >> After finding out $that_new_branch's name, add either >> >> Pull: refs/heads/$that_new_branch:refs/heads/$that_new_branch >> >> or if you are in "separate remote" school, then perhaps >> >> Pull: refs/heads/$that_new_branch:refs/remotes/origin/$that_new_branch >> >> to .git/remotes/origin and running git fetch would give you what you >> want, I think. > > There really should be a flag to make git fetch do this job. And if we > use separate remotes, the flag should probably default to "on". While I do not necessarily agree that "git fetch" is the place to do so, I think it is sensible to have a way to easily manage remotes/$origin file. Things to consider are: - We need to notice new branches at the other end. - We need to remember old branches that the user is not interested in, so that we do not even ask to add it only because it does not have a local tracking branch. - We need to notice branches that disappeared at the other end. We may want to offer the choice between droping the local tracking branch and keeping it in the 'the last fetched' state. So from the UI point of view, considering that "git fetch" might be called as a part of "git pull", a sensible thing to do would be: - Add "Pull-ignored:" lines to list remote branches that the user is not interested in to .git/remotes/$origin file, and teach existing tools to ignore them. - Make "git fetch" to always run "ls-remote" (we would need to do this anyway to enable commit walkers to fetch from a repository that has packed and then pruned its refs) upfront, and do the "noticing" part and issue an info message when there are new branches (we should only do this when a shorthand from .git/remotes/ is used). - Add "git maint-remote" command that lets the user compare ls-remote output and Pull: lines from remotes/$origin file, and add/modify/delete the mapping to local tracking branches. I think the last one is probably the easiest for the users if done with something like dialog or whiptail. - 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