On Mon, Jan 06, 2025 at 07:42:25AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Patrick Steinhardt <ps@xxxxxx> writes: > > > back when Git was in its infancy, remotes were configured via separate > > files in "branches/" (back in 2005). This mechanism was replaced later > > that year with the "remotes/" directory. These mechanism have evenutally > > been replaced by config-based remotes,... > > Just a historical note, as I am not sure how much of it still > matters. In all of the above "replaced" is an incorrect verb to > use. "A more-powerful-but-different mechanism to do the same and > more was introduced later" is a fair statement, though. > > Specifically the ".git/branches/name" mechanism was never removed as > it had one distinct advantage over all other mechanisms for users > who have to juggle tons of remotes that change either their URLs or > branch names or both not so infrequently. Instead of having to edit > files in .git/remotes/*, being able to say > > $ ls .git/branches/*partialname* > $ echo "$URL#$branch" >.git/branches/foo > $ rm .git/brnaches/foo > > was powerful. Offhand I do not know if "git remote" command > improved the usability aspect of newer mechanisms good enough > to allow us to start using the verb "replace" here. I would claim the fact that nobody nowadays knows about either of the old mechanisms is a good indicator that git-remote(1) has indeed completely replaced them. I'm happy to slightly reword it though, even if it doesn't ultimately end up in any of the commits anyway :) Patrick
