On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 12:19:35PM +0200, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote: > On Sat, Oct 13, 2018 at 10:12 AM Tao Qingyun <taoqy@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi, I am learning `builtin/branch.c`. I find that it will call `branch_get` > > before create and [un]set upstream, and die with "no such branch" if failed. > > but `branch_get` seems never fail, it is a get_or_create. Also, it was > > confused that getting a branch before it has created. > > > > builtin/branch.c #811 > > > > } else if (argc > 0 && argc <= 2) { > > struct branch *branch = branch_get(argv[0]); > > > > if (!branch) > > die(_("no such branch '%s'"), argv[0]); > > From my reading of the source you're correct. That !branch case is > pointless. The only way that function can fail is in the x*() family > of functions, which'll make the function die instead of returning > NULL. It sometimes returns current_branch, which can be NULL (e.g., if you're on a detached HEAD). Try: $ git branch HEAD fatal: no such branch 'HEAD' $ git branch '' fatal: no such branch '' However, it seems weird that we'd check those cases here (and provide such lousy messages). And indeed, dropping that and letting us eventually hit create_branch() gives a much better message: $ git branch HEAD fatal: 'HEAD' is not a valid branch name. $ git branch '' fatal: '' is not a valid branch name. I think we'd want to see that reasoning in the commit message. -Peff