On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 11:03:10AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Duy Nguyen <pclouds@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > Prevent is a strong word. I meant we only do it if they force > > it. Something like this.. > > > > -- 8< -- > > diff --git a/branch.c b/branch.c > > index 723a36b..3f0540f 100644 > > --- a/branch.c > > +++ b/branch.c > > @@ -251,6 +251,11 @@ void create_branch(const char *head, > > forcing = 1; > > } > > > > + if (!force && dwim_ref(name, strlen(name), sha1, &real_ref)) > > + die(_("creating ref refs/heads/%s makes %s ambiguous.\n" > > + "Use -f to create it anyway."), > > + name, name); > > Does this check still allow you to create a branch "refs/heads/next" > and then later create a branch "next"? The latter will introduce an > ambiguity without any prevention, even though the prevention would > trigger if the order in which these two branches are created is > swapped--- the end result has ambiguity but the safety covers only > one avenue to the confusing situation. > > And the only way I can think of to avoid that kind of confusion is > to forbid creation of a subset of possible names by reserving a set > of known (but arbitrary) prefixes---which I am not sure is a good > way to go. At least not yet. There's already the arbitrary set of prefixes in refs.c::prettify_refname() and refs.c::ref_rev_parse_rules(). I can see how a user might think that since "git log refs/heads/name" is equivalent to "git log master" then "git branch refs/heads/name" should be equivalent to "git branch name". I don't think requiring "--force" for these branch names that overlap with these special namespaces is a big leap from supporting them for inspection commands. Although I'm not sure how sensible it is to examine every remote name to catch something like "git branch origin/master". Perhaps Duy's ambiguity check is the best thing for that case. -- 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