Re: Running 'git pull' from an unnamed branch

On 2009.04.05 22:33:57 +0100, Reece Dunn wrote:

$ git pull
You asked me to pull without telling me which branch you
want to merge with, and 'branch..merge' in
your configuration file does not tell me either.  Please
name which branch you want to merge on the command line and
try again (e.g. 'git pull <repository> <refspec>').
See git-pull(1) for details on the refspec.

If you often merge with the same branch, you may want to
configure the following variables in your configuration
file:

    branch..remote = <nickname>
    branch..merge = <remote-ref>
    remote.<nickname>.url = <url>
    remote.<nickname>.fetch = <refspec>

See git-config(1) for details.

$ git branch
* (no branch)
  master

Running `git checkout master && git pull` fixed the above issue. The
patch below improves the error message for users that are in this
state.

It doesn't "fix" anything, you're simply doing something different.

"git pull" while on a detached HEAD can't work, there are no defaults
that could be used. But e.g. "git pull origin master" would do, fetching
"master" from "origin" and merging it to the commit you have checked
out.

Your "git checkout master && git pull" does something else. It uses the
configured pull defaults for "master" to fetch something and merge it to
"master".

Also, is "branch..remote" valid? Should this be "branch.remote"?

That's a bug, but it should not be branch.remote. The config setting is
branch.<name>.remote. As you were on a detached HEAD, there is no
"<name>", and the code that generates the error message doesn't handle
that correctly. I'd even say that in this case, the whole "If you often
merge ..." part makes no sense at all, you simply can't setup pull
defaults for a detached HEAD.

+	echo "You may not be on a branch. In this case, you need to move"
+	echo "onto the branch you want to pull to (usually master):"

Hm? Neither do you really need to move to a branch, nor is "master"
really _that_ special that it is warranted to recommend checking it
out... IMHO.

Björn