Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] Make 'git request-pull' more strict about matching local/remote branches

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 14:27:03 -0800

Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> writes:

> ... there is no 'for-linus' branch locally, so there is no way for
> him to say
>
>         git request-pull initial origin for-linus
>
> unless he creates it locally first.

In real life on the kernel list, for-linus may have to be a signed
tag, and pushed out 1-to-1 name mapping, so in that sense, "unless
he creates it locally first" may not be a problem.

I'd throw this into "No, this is not the only way to do so and there
are workarounds available if we suddenly tightened the rule and
broke those who relied on this behaviour. But this is not a less
good way compared to the alternative of creating the same-named ref
first, so we _are_ breaking people deliberately---is that worth the
safety for always-push-one-to-one people?" category.

I'd throw the other one (i.e. 5150.5) into "that is crazy enough
that a short apology in the Release Notes is sufficient before
breaking those who relied on that behaviour" category, on the other
hand ;-).