Re: master^ is not a local branch -- huh?!?

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Sverre Rabbelier [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

quoted

master^ is a commit (the first parent of master), not a branch (local
or otherwise).

Perhaps we should change the message to say "not a branch" if it's not
a reference to a remote branch? Or simply changing the text to "not a
(local) branch"?

I think "not a branch" is a good suggestion, whether the target of
checkout is "master^" or "origin/topic".

These days, you can say "git checkout topic" to automagically create a
local "topic" branch that forks from "origin/topic" remote tracking branch
when you have one, thanks to Dscho's UI improvement ideas (one less
reason you may end up on a detached HEAD state without wanting to).

If this is the case then I'm really disappointed.

With all due respects, I don't share Dscho's sentiment about Git's 
alleged non user-friendliness.  And I always praised Git's ability to 
use a detached head to check out a remote branch, and never had any 
problem teaching this concept to people.  So the above is not a UI 
improvement at all to me.


Nicolas