I keep a directory of bare repositories, which I created by running sync-ebooks -v -b and regularly update with the same command.
Behind the scenes, sync-ebooks runs git fetch -v in each repository (whether bare or not). In a normal repository, this doesn't update the checked‐out master branch, but does update remote/origin/master and remote/origin/HEAD. In a bare repository, though, there are no remote branches, only the one branch master, which remains unchanged. I assume git fetch is bringing in newer commits, but without any references they are effectively inaccessible as far as I can tell. (My not realizing this led to merge conflicts in a recent pull request.)
We could change sync-ebooks to run git fetch origin master:master. In a bare repo, that does what I consider intuitive: master will be updated to point to the fetched commits. But checked‐out repos don’t play well with this command, so we would have to split the command paths for bare and non‐bare repos. (Besides making the code more complicated, a reason I consider this undesirable is that it would eliminate an undocumented but useful characteristic of sync-ebooks, that it will update both bare and checked‐out repositories present in the same directory.)
However, we can get this behavior in bare repos automatically by cloning with with --mirror. Doing so adds this line to the new repo’s Git config:
fetch = +refs/*:refs/*
With this sync-ebooks’ behavior for checked‐out repos is unchanged, while bare (now mirror) repos update their only branch, master, to the latest master commit in the origin, which I think is a more natural and useful behavior.
acabal
commented
4 months ago
I keep a directory of bare repositories, which I created by running
sync-ebooks -v -band regularly update with the same command.Behind the scenes,
sync-ebooksrunsgit fetch -vin each repository (whether bare or not). In a normal repository, this doesn't update the checked‐outmasterbranch, but does updateremote/origin/masterandremote/origin/HEAD. In a bare repository, though, there are no remote branches, only the one branchmaster, which remains unchanged. I assumegit fetchis bringing in newer commits, but without any references they are effectively inaccessible as far as I can tell. (My not realizing this led to merge conflicts in a recent pull request.)We could change
sync-ebooksto rungit fetch origin master:master. In a bare repo, that does what I consider intuitive:masterwill be updated to point to the fetched commits. But checked‐out repos don’t play well with this command, so we would have to split the command paths for bare and non‐bare repos. (Besides making the code more complicated, a reason I consider this undesirable is that it would eliminate an undocumented but useful characteristic ofsync-ebooks, that it will update both bare and checked‐out repositories present in the same directory.)However, we can get this behavior in bare repos automatically by cloning with with
--mirror. Doing so adds this line to the new repo’s Git config:With this
sync-ebooks’ behavior for checked‐out repos is unchanged, while bare (now mirror) repos update their only branch,master, to the latestmastercommit in the origin, which I think is a more natural and useful behavior.