Subject: Re: 'git branch' when origin branch with same name exists

From: Ryan Lortie <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:44:03 -0400

hi,

On 12-06-19 02:31 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> But I do not think "git branch" can sensibly and
> correctly make that decision for the user---at least I do not sense
> any of the people who is in this thread has clear idea on what to
> base that decision on, and "the same name appears in an existing
> remote" is not it.  "The same name appears, and the new branch is
> not set to integrate with it" may be closer, but that may forbid
> valid use cases too much.

My originally intended point was that it should be prevented in the case 
where 'git branch' is given no additional arguments (ie: implicitly 
creating the branch from HEAD).  Obviously it should be possible to 
create a 'gtk-3-4' branch that is based on the origin one.  In any case, 
I should have made that more clear.

So to restate the feature request more clearly: "git branch X" with no 
explicitly specified start-point should prevent the branch "X" from 
being created when a branch with the same name already exists on a 
remote (perhaps only considering 'origin').

When stated in this more explicit way, it becomes clear that a --force 
option would not even be required; you could just say:

   git branch gtk-3-4 HEAD

to make it clear that this was your intention.

Nobody making a casual mistake would type that in full.

Cheers