Re: How to check new commit availability without full fetch?

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 08:36:44PM -0500, Leo Razoumov wrote:

BTW, pull and push are in a way symmetric operations.

Not really... 'pull' = 'fetch' + 'merge', while 'push' only propagates
changes without any merging. You can say 'fetch' and 'push' are in a way
symmetric operations, but this symmetry is limited due to difference in
usage between local and remote branches.

Is there any
deep reason why push supports --dry-run but pull/fetch does not??

I guess it is because no one needs it. 'push' has --dry-run, because
it updates local references in a remote repository. So, you may want
to be sure that you are pushing the right thing. On the other hand,
I see no reason to have --dry-run for 'fetch', because it updates only
remote references, making them to point to the current state of the
corresponding branches. 'fetch' does not change any local branch, so
I see no reason for --dry-run.

What use case do you have in mind that needs --dry-run for 'fetch'?


Dmitry