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From: "Eric N. Vander Weele" <ericvw@gmail.com>
To: Benjamin Sandeen <benjaminsandeen2016@u.northwestern.edu>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Bug Report
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2016 22:20:55 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAGhVqYthSWCqXW2=3dSUweZ2hqTRSHJiHGNWsmQxUxtmAbnzYw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <04bf01d18d3f$4ce38410$e6aa8c30$@u.northwestern.edu>

On Sat, Apr 2, 2016 at 8:25 PM, Benjamin Sandeen
<benjaminsandeen2016@u.northwestern.edu> wrote:
> Today, I managed to create a duplicate branch in a git repository.  While
> this may not be a bug per se, I do think that it is confusing and some way
> of preventing such issues in the future may be helpful.

This can be confusing.  I'll hopefully try to help and explain below.

> I first cloned the repository:
>
> $ git clone https://github.com/CodeForChicago/superclass.git
>
> Then, I created a new branch (or so I thought):
>
> $ git checkout -b lesson_page

At this point, you created a *local* branch called 'lesson_page' which
points to the current HEAD and then switched to that branch .  This
local branch is independent of the remote branch called
'origin/lesson_page'.

> However, this branch has already existed for about 4 weeks, without my
> knowledge.  I proceeded to do some work on the files it contained, and when
> it came time to commit and push, and when I pushed, I got the following
> message:
>
> To https://github.com/CodeForChicago/superclass.git
>  ! [rejected]        lesson_page -> lesson_page (non-fast-forward)
> error: failed to push some refs to '
> https://github.com/CodeForChicago/superclass.git'
> hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind
> hint: its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g.
> hint: 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
> hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.
>
> Given that I had believed that I had created the branch just a few hours
> prior and was the first to attempt to push to it, this error was
> consternating.

The non-fast-forward push is preventing history being rewritten- this
is a good thing :).

> I may be wrong (I am aware that my understanding of git is limited), but I
> believe that the git checkout -b command is simply supposed to create a new
> branch and then switch to it (I'm not aware of any subtle behavior that goes
> on behind the scenes if the "new" branch that the user is attempting to
> create already exists).  This is why I said it "may not be a bug per se".
> However, I expect most people who use git to expect this command to create a
> new branch and then switch to it (this is what most sources online will tell
> users to do to create a new branch), and as such, it would be extremely
> beneficial if git were to, at the very least, alert the user to the conflict
> in some way or another.

The `git checkout -b` command is working as expected.  `git checkout
-b <name>` is equivalent to `git branch <name> && git checkout
<name>`.  If you were to execute `git checkout lesson_page`, you would
get the desired behavior you were expecting because in the presence of
one remote, git will actually execute `git checkout -b lesson_page
--track origin/lesson_page` - more details can be found in `git help
checkout`.  Effectively, it checkouts 'origin/lesson_page' as a new
local branch named 'lesson_page'.

However, you indicated that you did not know there was a remote
branch already named 'lesson_page'.  After cloning the repository, you
can use `git branch -a` to see all remotes to determine which form of
`git checkout` to use.

> Thanks,
> Ben
>
> Lead Consultant, Northwestern University Information Technology
> Research Assistant, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in
> Astrophysics at Northwestern University
> Phsyics, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
> Computer Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
> Classics, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
>
>
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

  reply	other threads:[~2016-04-03  2:23 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 72+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2016-04-03  0:25 Bug Report Benjamin Sandeen
2016-04-03  2:20 ` Eric N. Vander Weele [this message]
2016-04-03  2:22 ` Jacob Keller
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2024-10-13 15:44 =?gb18030?B?zuLUqsrY?=
2024-10-09  3:23 Bug report Ed Reel
2024-07-19 18:34 Roman Dvoskin
2024-07-19 20:13 ` brian m. carlson
2024-07-19 20:35   ` Roman Dvoskin
2024-07-19 20:40   ` rsbecker
2023-08-28 12:51 Dexter Pontañeles
2023-06-27 16:02 Bug Report Tiago d'Almeida
2022-12-28  2:43 Bug report Jensen Bean
2022-12-28  5:02 ` Eric Sunshine
2022-12-25 17:26 bug report Eyal Post
2022-12-25 18:12 ` Eric Sunshine
2022-12-08  5:29 Bug Report Jensen Bean
2022-12-08  8:31 ` Bagas Sanjaya
     [not found]   ` <CANqKdC-gHgQHn5DMoOREY52y7PpRLMpNAjX3qeA5iy9z_GXdzw@mail.gmail.com>
2022-12-26  2:15     ` Bagas Sanjaya
2022-11-19 20:20 Jensen Bean
2022-10-03 15:28 Bug report Alastair Douglas
2022-10-03 16:53 ` Junio C Hamano
2022-10-04 10:15   ` Alastair Douglas
2022-10-05  5:46     ` Junio C Hamano
2022-04-20 19:45 Bug Report Daniel Habenicht
2022-04-20 21:30 ` brian m. carlson
2022-04-20 22:34   ` rsbecker
2022-04-21 13:20     ` Daniel Habenicht
2022-04-21 14:39       ` Torsten Bögershausen
     [not found]         ` <AS1P190MB175022A7F1264807ECA464A8ECF49@AS1P190MB1750.EURP190.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>
2022-04-21 17:52           ` Torsten Bögershausen
2021-12-01 22:31 Josh Rampersad
2021-11-12  4:22 bug report Theodore Li
2021-11-12  4:29 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-11-12  6:59   ` Theodore Li
2021-11-12 14:05     ` Paul Smith
2020-03-27 11:53 Bug Report James Yeoman
2020-03-27 12:59 ` Pratyush Yadav
     [not found] <CA+2sEepTyrK-iH+VBHVF1i9DuYVzDkTNxuM0-yoWbkC9N4f8HA@mail.gmail.com>
2019-04-15 15:18 ` bug report Nick Steinhauser
2017-08-30 21:25 Bug report Aleksandar Pavic
2017-08-31  6:36 ` Kevin Daudt
2017-08-31 14:19   ` Dov Grobgeld
2017-08-31 14:55     ` Aleksandar Pavic
2017-08-31 16:23   ` Stephan Beyer
2017-09-02  8:49 ` Jeff King
2016-05-13  5:04 bug report 李本超
2016-05-13  5:23 ` Pranit Bauva
2016-05-13  5:58   ` 李本超
2016-05-13  6:37     ` Pranit Bauva
2016-05-13  6:57       ` 李本超
2016-05-13  7:10         ` Pranit Bauva
2016-05-13  7:41           ` 李本超
2016-05-13  8:10             ` Jeff King
2016-05-13 12:05               ` 李本超
2015-01-27 14:43 Albert Akhriev
2015-01-27 14:50 ` Jeff King
     [not found] <CAC34_pT9zwZDnUjo1bTUZabD02M48=_+77-mNCA5adWTgxuYgg@mail.gmail.com>
2013-04-08  5:20 ` Bug Report Kirk Fraser
2012-10-05 10:13 Bug report Муковников Михаил
2012-10-05 10:32 ` Konstantin Khomoutov
2012-10-05 10:47   ` Carlos Martín Nieto
2012-10-05 11:03     ` Муковников Михаил
2012-10-05 10:52   ` Муковников Михаил
2012-10-04  4:35 John Whitney
2012-10-04 14:19 ` Phil Hord
2012-10-04 16:10   ` John Whitney
2012-10-06 13:31     ` Jeff King
2012-10-07  2:23       ` John Whitney
2012-10-07 23:52         ` Jeff King
2012-10-09 17:17           ` John Whitney
2012-10-09 19:00             ` John Whitney
2012-10-04 15:21 ` Andrew Wong
2012-10-04 16:16   ` John Whitney
2012-10-04 16:28     ` John Whitney
2012-10-04 17:01     ` Andrew Wong

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