Re: [PATCH] pull: refuse complete src:dst fetchspec arguments

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:15:23 -0400 (EDT)
Daniel Barkalow [off-list ref] wrote:

Hi Daniel,

Surely, "where you want the head stored locally" is somewhere that's 
information about a remote repository, and therefore under "refs/remotes/" 
(or "refs/tags/" or something) and therefore not possible to be checked 
out (in the "HEAD is a symref to it" sense).

Maybe, but it could also just be to create a temp local branch for
merging into additional branches afterward with "checkout other;
merge temp".   This is especially helpful when pulling from an
annoyingly long URL instead of from a configured remote.
 

I don't think it should be possible to fast-forward or create a local 
branch from a remote branch while simultaneously merging it into the 
currently-checked-out local branch.

What is the harm?   Nobody is forced to use the facility and it does
have some marginal utility.   I'd not fight for it, but i don't yet
understand the argument to prohibit it.

Actually, I think it would be good to prohibit fetching into a new or 
existing local branch, whether or not it is checked out. We'd probably 
need to provide a plumbing method of doing a fetch, though, for script 
environments that aren't using the normal porcelain meanings of refs/ 
subdirectories. (Defining a bare repo with --mirror as not having local 
branches, of course)

I'm hoping you don't mean that all fetching to a new local branch should
be prohibited and you're only talking about the current issue of full
refspecs on and the pull command.   Otherwise i'd say it seems
unnecessarily restrictive.

Cheers,
Sean