Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Hari Lubovac]

It appears to be just a reporting issue. Probably not a big deal, but
I thought I should report this, if it hasn't been noticed: when a
branch is switched to by being named with non-original
character-casing, then it's not clear which branch is current.

Example:

C:\repo>git branch
* bar
  foo

C:\repo>git checkout Bar
Switched to branch 'Bar'

C:\repo>git branch
  bar
  foo

Re: Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Stefan Beller]

Hi Hari,

thanks for reporting a bug!

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 12:26 PM, Hari Lubovac <hlubovac@gmail.com> wrote:
> It appears to be just a reporting issue. Probably not a big deal, but
> I thought I should report this, if it hasn't been noticed: when a
> branch is switched to by being named with non-original
> character-casing, then it's not clear which branch is current.
>
> Example:
>
> C:\repo>git branch
> * bar
>   foo
>
> C:\repo>git checkout Bar
> Switched to branch 'Bar'
>
> C:\repo>git branch
>   bar
>   foo

Is this Git compiled under Windows or
Git-for-Windows as distributed by Johannes?

AFAICT Git-for-Windows prefers to have a bug on github
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/new

Thanks,
Stefan

Re: Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Hari Lubovac]

I don't know which party compiled it. I'm pretty sure I downloaded the
installer from https://git-scm.com/downloads, although it might have
come shipped with Microsoft Visual Studio, which I use.

I forgot this detail earlier:

git --version
git version 2.16.1.windows.2

I'm a little behind; maybe I should upgrade.

I just reported the same here:
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/1623

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 12:32 PM, Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> wrote:
> Hi Hari,
>
> thanks for reporting a bug!
>
> On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 12:26 PM, Hari Lubovac <hlubovac@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It appears to be just a reporting issue. Probably not a big deal, but
>> I thought I should report this, if it hasn't been noticed: when a
>> branch is switched to by being named with non-original
>> character-casing, then it's not clear which branch is current.
>>
>> Example:
>>
>> C:\repo>git branch
>> * bar
>>   foo
>>
>> C:\repo>git checkout Bar
>> Switched to branch 'Bar'
>>
>> C:\repo>git branch
>>   bar
>>   foo
>
> Is this Git compiled under Windows or
> Git-for-Windows as distributed by Johannes?
>
> AFAICT Git-for-Windows prefers to have a bug on github
> https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/new
>
> Thanks,
> Stefan

Re: Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 09.04.2018 um 21:26 schrieb Hari Lubovac:
> It appears to be just a reporting issue. Probably not a big deal, but
> I thought I should report this, if it hasn't been noticed: when a
> branch is switched to by being named with non-original
> character-casing, then it's not clear which branch is current.
> 
> Example:
> 
> C:\repo>git branch
> * bar
>    foo
> 
> C:\repo>git checkout Bar
> Switched to branch 'Bar'
> 
> C:\repo>git branch
>    bar
>    foo

The bug is not that the branch is not marked, but that you are permitted 
to check out a branch that does not exist. This is a side-effect of the 
fact that branch names are sometimes stored using file names, and, as we 
know, file names are case-insensitive on Windows. I don't know of any 
efforts to fix that (I assume that it is not just a simple fix). In the 
meantime, I can only recommend: if it hurts, don't do it.

If you call `git gc` before the checkout command, I would expect that 
you would not be able to check out branch 'Bar', because branches are 
represented unambiguously after 'gc' (not as file names).

-- Hannes

Re: Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Stefan,

On Mon, 9 Apr 2018, Stefan Beller wrote:

> AFAICT Git-for-Windows prefers to have a bug on github
> https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/new

I try to follow Postel's Law for contributions and bug reports. If there
is enough detail in the bug report on this here mailing list, that's good
enough for me.

If details are missing, I frequently suggest to follow that link because
some excellent contributors spent quality time on the issue reporting
template, helping bug reporters to avoid incomplete reports.

Thanks,
Johannes

Re: Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Stefan,

On Mon, 9 Apr 2018, Stefan Beller wrote:

> AFAICT Git-for-Windows prefers to have a bug on github
> https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/new

I try to follow Postel's Law for contributions and bug reports. If there
is enough detail in the bug report on this here mailing list, that's good
enough for me.

If details are missing, I frequently suggest to follow that link because
some excellent contributors spent quality time on the issue reporting
template, helping bug reporters to avoid incomplete reports.

Thanks,
Johannes

Re: Windows > git.exe > the result of "git branch" does not always highlight the current branch

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Hari,

On Mon, 9 Apr 2018, Hari Lubovac wrote:

> I don't know which party compiled it. I'm pretty sure I downloaded the
> installer from https://git-scm.com/downloads, although it might have
> come shipped with Microsoft Visual Studio, which I use.

In both cases, this would be Git for Windows.

> I forgot this detail earlier:
> 
> git --version
> git version 2.16.1.windows.2
> 
> I'm a little behind; maybe I should upgrade.

It is not quite *necessary* to upgrade, but you will get a couple nice new
features and nice bug fixes.

But the bug you reported is still there ;-)

> I just reported the same here:
> https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/1623

Thank you for opening this bug report. There are other bug reports
describing related issues; they might even be covered by the same fixes.

Assuming that you are eager enough to see this fixed, I started describing
how to go about building Git for Windows, where the code is located that
need to be fixed, and how to go about fixing it.

Thanks,
Johannes