Re: [PATCH] merge: allow "-" as a short-hand for "previous branch"

[Thomas Adam <thomas@xteddy.org>]

Hi,

On 8 April 2011 00:03, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> Just like "git checkout -" is a short-hand for "git checkout @{-1}" to
> conveniently switch back to the previous branch, "git merge -" is a
> short-hand for "git merge @{-1}" to conveniently merge the previous branch.
>
> It will allow me to say:
>
>    $ git checkout -b au/topic
>    $ git am -s ./+au-topic.mbox
>    $ git checkout pu
>    $ git merge -

I agree this is is useful, but is there a danger of this being a
common typo, and people merging in previous branches a lot more often
than they ever intended?  In the case of "git checkout -" that's not
as fatal, but if I ever mistype "git merge -" -- I'm now left with an
unraveling exercise to do.

Hopefully it won't be an issue, as it's no worse than mistyping branch
names -- I suppose it's the sheer length of "-" in this case which
leads to more potential for problems.

-- Thomas Adam