On Sat, Nov 19, 2022 at 6:49 AM Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
<avarab@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 19 2022, Jacob Abel wrote:
> > I'd support adding an `advise()` for at least the basic case where you try to
> > create a worktree and no branches currently exist in the repository.
> > i.e. something like this:
> >
> > % git -C foo.git worktree add foobar/
> > hint: If you meant to create a new initial branch for this repository,
> > hint: e.g. 'main', you can do so using the --orphan option:
> > hint:
> > hint: git worktree add --orphan main main/
> > hint:
> > fatal: invalid reference: 'foobar'
> > and
> > % git -C foo.git worktree add -b foobar foobardir/
> > hint: If you meant to create a new initial branch for this repository,
> > hint: e.g. 'main', you can do so using the --orphan option:
> > hint:
> > hint: git worktree add --orphan main main/
> > hint:
> > fatal: invalid reference: 'foobar'
>
> I think those would make sense, yes.
Yes, this sort of advice could go a long way toward addressing my
discoverability concerns. (I think, too, we should be able to
dynamically customize the advice to mention "foobar" rather than
"main" in order to more directly help the user.) Along with that,
explaining this use-case in the git-worktree documentation would also
be valuable for improving discoverability.
Updating the commit message of patch [2/2] to explain this more fully
would also be helpful for reviewers. It wasn't clear to me, for
instance, during initial reviews and discussion that you were adding
--orphan to make this use-case possible. Simply including in the
commit message an example usage and associated error of the current
implementation:
% git init --bare foo.git
% git -C foo.git worktree add -b main bar
Preparing worktree (new branch 'main')
fatal: not a valid object name: 'HEAD'
%
would go a long way to help reviewers understand what this series is
trying to achieve (at least it would have helped me).
> > Would there be any other circumstances where we'd definitely want an `advise()`?
> > Generally I'd assume that outside of those two circumstances, most users will
> > rarely intend to make an orphan without already knowing they absolutely need to
> > make an orphan.
>
> I'm not familiar enough with the use-cases & workflow around "worktree"
> to say, sorry.
It's probably fine to limit this advice to `git worktree add`,
certainly for an initial implementation.
