Re: [PATCH] status: add advice on how to push/pull to tracking branch

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

-	if (!num_theirs)
+	if (!num_theirs) {
 		strbuf_addf(sb,
 			Q_("Your branch is ahead of '%s' by %d commit.\n",
 			   "Your branch is ahead of '%s' by %d commits.\n",
 			   num_ours),
 			base, num_ours);
-	else if (!num_ours)
+		strbuf_addf(sb,
+			_("  (use \"git push\" to publish your local commits)\n"));
+	} else if (!num_ours) {

The message should make it clear that the two words in double quotes
only hint what command is used to "publish your local commits" and
not to be taken as literal "here is what you exactly would type",
but I do not think that is what I would get from this if I were a
total newbie who would need this advise.

It is even more true given that this is showing an arbitrary, and
more likely than not a non-current branch, especially with the
recent move from "matching" to "simple" where a naive use of "git
push" is to push the branch that is currently checked out and no
other branches.

I don't understand what you mean by "non-current". If you mean a local
branch not pointed to by HEAD, then I don't understand the remark, as
the message is shown by "git status" (looking more closely, it is also
shown by "git checkout", but after switching branch so also showing a
message about the current branch) and precisely talks about the current
branch. If you mean that the upsteam branch has a name different from
the local one, then with "push.default=simple", argumentless "git push"
will fail and show a detailed explanation to the user, which I find
acceptable.

I can tweak the advice to show the full "git push" command with
push.default=matching/current, but first, I'd like to understand your
remark.

quoted

+		strbuf_addf(sb,
+			_("  (use \"git pull\" to update your local branch)\n"));
+	} else {

Likewise, and the non-currentness of the branch being described is
even worse in here, as unlike "git push" that can still be used to
push a non-current branch, "git pull" is never to be used to update
local branch that is not current, which means the advice must mention
"git checkout" somewhere.

I understand this remark even less. We're showing a message about the
current branch and its upstream branch. In which case would "git pull"
not do the right thing?

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/