From: Kevin Daudt <me@ikke.info>
To: Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff@gmail.com>
Cc: Git <git@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2016 22:58:42 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20161014205842.GA6350@ikke.info> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CACPiFC+8+wVEcDt9JZgTW1dwCCFKszyXD6ysDxNQorcNkom7Lw@mail.gmail.com>
On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 04:25:49PM -0400, Martin Langhoff wrote:
> In a (private) repo project I have, I recently tried (and failed) to do:
>
> git checkout v4.1-support
>
> getting a "pathspec did not match any files known to git" error.
>
> There's an origin/v4.1-support, there is no v4.1-support "local"
> branch. Creating the tracking branch explicitly worked.
>
> Other similar branches in existence upstream did work. Autocomplete
> matched git's own behaviour for this; where git checkout foo woudn't
> work, autocomplete would not offer a completion.
>
> Why is this?
>
> One theory I have not explored is that I have other remotes, and some
> have a v4.1-support branch. If that's the case, the error message is
> not very helpful, and could be improved.
>
> git --version
> 2.7.4
>
> DWIM in git is remarkably good, even addictive... when it works :-)
>
> cheers,
>
Correct, this only works when it's unambiguous what branch you actually
mean.
if remote_a/branch and remote_b/branch exists, git cannot guess which
one you actually mean.
The message you get is because git checkout can be followed by several
things. Either a branch/commit or a file. Git complaining it cannot find
a file with that name is because it has exhausted all other options.
I do agree that message could be a bit more clear.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-10-14 20:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-10-14 20:25 Automagic `git checkout branchname` mysteriously fails Martin Langhoff
2016-10-14 20:58 ` Kevin Daudt [this message]
2016-10-14 21:06 ` Martin Langhoff
2016-10-17 11:39 ` Duy Nguyen
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