From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
To: Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com>,
Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Cc: Martin <git@mfriebe.de>, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>,
git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: What actually is a branch?
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2021 16:25:17 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <60e61bbd7a37d_3030aa2081a@natae.notmuch> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87bl7d3l8r.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>
Since this is not strictly related to the topic of `git switch` I
renamed the thread.
Sergey Organov wrote:
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
> > Sergey Organov wrote:
> >> Overall, if we aim at clear documentation, we need to define our
> >> documentation terms as precise as possible, and then use them
> >> consistently.
> >>
> >> For example:
> >>
> >> "branch": a chain of commits
> >>
> >> "branch tip": the most recent commit in a branch
> >>
> >> "branch name": specific type of symbolic reference pointing to a branch tip
> >
> > Completely agree on all three (although I would call it "branch head",
> > not "branch tip").
>
> I see why "branch head", as you later introduce "branch tail", but a
> branch (of a plant) has no "head" (nor "tail"), right? BTW, how the base
> of a plant branch is called in English, and how one finds "branch tail"
> on a real tree anyway? I mean, there are probably a few of them, at
> every fork. In Git it's even more vague, as a branch could logically
> begin at any place, not necessarily at a fork point.
We don't necessarily need a 1-to-1 mapping with common English (although
that would be nice). Anoher option could be "base" and "tip".
> OTOH, "head" and "tail" are obviously taken from CS "list" concept, and,
> provided "chain" == "list", it does make sense.
I took it from Mercurial, where the tip of a branch is called "head",
and in fact a branch can have multiple heads.
> And then we have 'HEAD' that points to the current branch tip anyway.
It actually points to a branch, or rather references a branch, since it
uses the branch name.
> Dunno, in fact I don't have any preference among "tip" and "head".
I don't either, but from different sources (non-git-specific) I've heard
"head" more often.
> As for branch tail, I do have convention of marking start of a
> long-standing branch with corresponding tag, where branch "foo" has
> corresponding "foo-bp" tag marking its "branch point". Recently I
> started to mark start of feature branch with yet another branch "foo-bp"
> rather than tag, "foo" being set to track "foo-bp", that allows to
> automate rebasing of "foo" against correct base.
So foo-bp is the upstream of foo, and you do basically:
git rebase foo@{upstream}
This is works if your base (or tail, or whatever) is static, but many
branches jump around, and that's where @{tail} comes in handy.
You can do this:
git rebase --onto foo@{upstream} foo@{tail}
This will always rebase the right commits (no need to look into the
reflog). So you can say that the branch is foo@{tail}..foo.
Another advantage of having this notion is that `git rebase`
automatically updates the tail (in this case to foo@{upstream}).
Cheers.
--
Felipe Contreras
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-07-07 21:25 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 103+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-06-29 15:28 PATCH: improve git switch documentation Martin
2021-06-29 16:35 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-06-29 19:04 ` Martin
2021-06-29 22:39 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-06-30 8:50 ` Martin
2021-06-30 22:59 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-07-01 10:06 ` Martin
2021-07-01 11:27 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-07 18:34 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-07 20:46 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-07 21:25 ` Felipe Contreras [this message]
2021-07-07 22:07 ` What actually is a branch? Sergey Organov
2021-07-07 22:35 ` Martin
2021-07-08 3:39 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-08 10:15 ` Martin
2021-07-08 17:33 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-08 19:21 ` Martin
2021-07-08 20:37 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-08 23:11 ` Martin
2021-07-09 0:45 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 13:24 ` Martin
2021-07-09 15:08 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 15:23 ` switch requires --detach [[Re: What actually is a branch]] Martin
2021-07-09 16:21 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 16:38 ` Randall S. Becker
2021-07-09 17:10 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 16:54 ` Martin
2021-07-10 10:08 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-10 19:18 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 14:29 ` PATCH: improve git switch documentation Martin
2021-07-09 16:10 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 16:51 ` Martin
2021-07-09 17:41 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-09 18:23 ` Martin
2021-07-10 19:45 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-10 20:07 ` Martin
2021-07-10 20:49 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-10 22:13 ` Martin
2021-07-10 23:35 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-11 9:10 ` Martin
2021-07-11 9:30 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-12 16:28 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-12 16:33 ` Martin
2021-07-12 16:58 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-12 17:52 ` Martin
2021-07-12 19:08 ` Felipe Contreras
[not found] ` <3a84e4c9-4e48-1cbe-4fe6-150ff56c8508@mfriebe.de>
[not found] ` <60ecbe577a086_a6b702082@natae.notmuch>
2021-07-13 10:42 ` Martin
2021-07-13 16:02 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-16 18:12 ` Martin
2021-07-16 18:31 ` Martin
2021-07-16 18:56 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-17 7:02 ` Martin
[not found] ` <1997ca3b-117a-e19a-0dee-7342a2f1a0e7@mfriebe.de>
[not found] ` <60f1f4c3dd8b1_14cb208c1@natae.notmuch>
[not found] ` <fedbfe1f-9e6d-f46f-ca41-e176a30e938c@mfriebe.de>
[not found] ` <60f22aaa6a4f1_1f602081b@natae.notmuch>
2021-07-17 10:07 ` Martin
[not found] ` <60f33f8a7c39b_507220823@natae.notmuch>
2021-07-17 21:23 ` Martin
2021-07-19 17:51 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-11 7:57 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-11 9:27 ` Martin
2021-07-11 9:37 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-11 10:24 ` Martin
2021-07-12 16:34 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-10 22:13 ` Naming the --forec option [[Re: PATCH: improve git switch documentation]] Martin
2021-07-10 23:18 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-11 0:39 ` Martin
2021-07-12 16:15 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-10 10:24 ` PATCH: improve git switch documentation Sergey Organov
2021-07-10 10:37 ` Bagas Sanjaya
2021-07-10 11:05 ` Martin
2021-07-10 16:32 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-10 20:12 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-11 9:04 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-11 10:05 ` Martin
2021-07-11 12:23 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-11 13:39 ` Martin
2021-07-11 14:49 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-11 16:51 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-12 10:31 ` Kerry, Richard
2021-07-12 11:11 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-12 16:55 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-12 16:24 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-12 16:39 ` Martin
2021-07-12 17:09 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-12 22:58 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-12 23:36 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-13 11:20 ` Martin
2021-07-10 20:00 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-10 19:51 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-11 9:52 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-12 16:44 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-13 10:57 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-13 16:10 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-14 19:14 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-14 19:51 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-14 20:42 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-08 3:12 ` What actually is a branch? Felipe Contreras
2021-07-08 11:16 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-08 18:05 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-01 14:58 ` PATCH: improve git switch documentation Junio C Hamano
2021-07-01 17:29 ` Martin
2021-07-01 17:46 ` Sergey Organov
2021-07-07 18:54 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-07 18:47 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-07 18:14 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-07-01 0:06 ` Matt Rogers
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