Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> I think it was a mistake that nobody noticed that it is likely that
> the operation most often will be done for the current branch and the
> usual "give me one branch name to operate on, or I'll operate on the
> current branch" command line convention of "git branch" commannd is
> not a good fit for it, when "set upstream" feature was added, and
> suggested an alternative syntax that avoids the mistake you quoted
> above, perhaps something like:
>
> git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master [HEAD]
>
> which would have been very clear whose upstream is set to what (with
> or without the name of the other branch). In other words, make the
> name "origin/master" *NOT* the first branch name on the command line
> in the usual sense, but a parameter to the --set-upstream option, so
> that "give me one branch name to operate on, or I'll operate on the
> current branch" convention is still kept.
>
> You also broke people who corrected another kind of mistake in this
> workflow:
> ...
> Coming from the above observation, while I am sympathetic to your
> cause and agree that we would want to do something about it, I am
> having a hard time to convince myself that your patch is the best
> way to go.
>
> I am not entirely happy with the hypothetical "set-upstream-to"
> myself, either.
Thinking about it a bit more, I am starting to think that something
based on the "set upstream to" could be a sane way forward:
* add "git branch [--set-upstream-to=<name>]" that does what your
patch does. The synopsis must make it clear that <name> is not
the usual first <name> like other "branch" command line arguments
that specify the branch being operated on, but is an argument to
the --set-upstream option [*1*].
* when "git branch --set-upstream <name>" without <start point>
is given, you first see if <name> exists and find out the
upstream of <name>, do what the user told you to do (i.e. reset
the upstream of the <name>d branch to the current branch), and
give hints to recover. Two possibilities:
$ git checkout frotz
$ git branch --set-upstream xyzzy
Branch xyzzy set up to track local branch frotz.
If you wanted to make frotz track xyzzy, do this:
$ git branch --set-upstream xyzzy <original>
$ git branch --set-upstream-to xyzzy
$ git checkout frotz
$ git branch --set-upstream origin/xyzzy
Branch origin/xyzzy set up to track local branch frotz.
If you wanted to make frotz track xyzzy, do this:
$ git branch -d origin/xyzzy
$ git branch --set-upstream-to origin/xyzzy
* possibly, deprecate --set-upstream as a historical wart that had
misdesigned UI, and when it is used, give deprecation warning and
nudge the user to use --set-upstream-to instead.
[Footnote]
*1* The parseopt parser will allow both of:
$ git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master
$ git branch --set-upstream-to origin/master
but the braket around the option name "--set-upstream-to" and
its argument <name> should make it clear, i.e.
git branch [--set-upstream-to <name>] [<branch>]
or
git branch [--set-upstream-to=<name>] [<branch>]
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