Re: git-checkout sometimes silently fails

Andrew Morton [off-list ref] writes:

y:/usr/src/git26> git-branch -av | grep '^\*'
* master               5717922 Merge branch 'for_linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jwessel/linux-2.6-kgdb
y:/usr/src/git26> git-checkout linux-next    
Switched to branch "linux-next"
y:/usr/src/git26> git-branch -av | grep '^\*'
* linux-next           5717922 Merge branch 'for_linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jwessel/linux-2.6-kgdb

So your two local branches 'master' and 'linux-next' both point at the
same commit, 5717922.

"git checkout <branchname>" is to check out the local branch name.  You
expect "git checkout master" and then "git checkout linux-next" to check
out two different commits because linux-next _should_ have been updated to
the latest from sfr repository.  But it appears to me that that is not the
case.

Perhaps "git fetch linux-next" hasn't been run, before "git checkout" was
attempted?