Michael Haggerty <mhagger@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: >>> Where is branch blarf? >> >> You haven't created one in that sequence yet. >> >> This is more of a documentation bug. >> >> As the SYNOPSIS section makes it clear, the '--edit-description' is a >> separate mode from showing (the first group), creating or repointing (the >> second), or renaming (the third). >> >> After that you should be able to say "git branch blarf" and view its >> description. > > Given this design, shouldn't "git branch --edit-description" fail if the > branch doesn't already exist? The only use scenario in the original design was to have a way to store the description given a branch name, and giving a description to a branch that does not yet exist is outside the scope of the design. So it all boils down to what is the most convenient and the simplest to explain. We could error it out (i.e. you cannot name a thing that does not yet exist), or we could consider it is a convenience feature that you can prepare a description even before you create one, or we could even tweak it more like "-t $name" that tries to work both on existing one (without changing any base) or non-existing one, creating it while at it. The last approach historically is the most error prone (we had numerous bugs in the create_branch() helper after it started allowing an existing branch when updating the "track" information) and I would rather not go that route if we can avoid it. Honestly speaking, I haven't formed an opinion. > Shouldn't it also resolve ambiguous reference names? As this mode, just like other modes of "git branch" _always_ takes a branch name, I do not think there is any "ambiguous reference name". You give $name to it, and it should always mean refs/heads/$name, and there shouldn't be any DWIMming to something like refs/heads/mh/$name Or do you have other kinds of ambiguity in mind? -- 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