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

From: Thomas Rast <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:21:50 +0200

Ryan Lortie <[email-masked]> writes:

> In this case, the user wanted to checkout a branch of a module.  They did:
>
>   git clone git://git.gnome.org/gtk+
>   cd gtk+
>   git branch gtk-3-4
>
> Obviously this is a user error, but it's a pretty innocent one, and
> puts the user in a bad state.  When they figure they should have typed
> "git checkout gtk-3-4" it is already too late -- they will be taken
> onto their locally-created copy of the master branch.
>
> So feature request: 'git branch' should not allow creating a local
> branch that has the same name as a branch that already exists on
> origin' (or any remote?) without some sort of --force flag.

How does this fit with the fact that git has forever(?) created a
'master' branch when cloning, and usually points it at origin/master
too?

I honestly haven't decided whether I should like or hate your proposal,
but ISTM that outlawing an operation that git does on every clone is a
bit moot.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch