Support git-like remote and local branch UX #1136

chooglen · 2023-01-27T03:04:35Z

Description

jj treats remote branches very differently compared to Git. Unfortunately, jj is primarily used as a client to remote Git repositories which the user may or may not have control over. Certain idiomatic Git patterns don't fit this model well, leading to a bad UX:

Adding a remote with a large number of branches that developers aren't necessarily expected to interact with regularly, e.g. https://github.com/gitster/git has a large number of historical topic branches. This is a somewhat GIt-specific problem since Git repos tend to have more branches than Mercurial repos have bookmarks.
- branch import causes local branches to be created, and they may be exported back to Git unexpectedly
- the output of jj branch list becomes very large and largely irrelevant
Adding multiple remotes with different branching structures. In Git, remotes can be used to "bookmark" URLs without necessarily fetching the entire contents of the remote/creating local branches for each remote branch.
- when branches share the same name across remotes (particularly read-only remotes), the "conflicted" branch state becomes less meaningful

Proposal

Add a config option that gives a more Git-like user experience to remote branches. An initial list of features could be:

Don't create local branches automatically on imports
Hide remote-only branches in jj branch list
When deleting a remote branch with jj git push --branch=no-local-target, require an explicit --delete flag

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martinvonz · 2023-01-27T05:02:17Z

SGTM :)

samueltardieu · 2023-01-27T06:40:53Z

This should be configurable by remote repository in addition to a default setting.

Wouldn't it be useful to also have an option for jj git clone and jj git remote add to overwrite the configured default behaviour? It would add this remote-specific option to the local configuration file.

martinvonz · 2023-01-27T16:21:44Z

This should be configurable by remote repository in addition to a default setting.

Makes sense.

Wouldn't it be useful to also have an option for jj git clone and jj git remote add to overwrite the configured default behaviour? It would add this remote-specific option to the local configuration file.

That also makes sense to me. We'd need support for writing configuration files first.

Typical query would be something like -r 'mine()' or -r 'branches()' to exclude remote-only branches jj-vcs#1136. I originally considered a filter applied only to local targets, but it might also be useful to filter by remote names. So both local and remote targets are tested. It's also nice that -r 'all()' includes deleted/forgotten branches. Suppose a local-ref target wouldn't likely be pointed by unrelated remote ref, I think non-strict filtering like this is practically okay.

ilyagr · 2023-07-01T04:04:25Z

Hide remote-only branches in jj branch list

I think this is a good idea, we also discussed it a bit with @yuja in #1762 (comment).

I think an important detail is that if jj branch list does not print these branches by default, it should instead print a message along the lines of:

Skipped 55 inactive branches; show them with --include-inactive.

Typical query would be something like -r 'mine()' or -r 'branches()' to exclude remote-only branches jj-vcs#1136. The query matches against local targets only. This means there's no way to select deleted/forgotten branches by -r option. If we add a default revset configuration, we'll need some way to turn the default off.

Typical query would be something like -r 'mine()' or -r 'branches()' to exclude remote-only branches #1136. The query matches against local targets only. This means there's no way to select deleted/forgotten branches by -r option. If we add a default revset configuration, we'll need some way to turn the default off.

jj-vcs#1136, jj-vcs#1666, jj-vcs#1734

#1136, #1666, #1734

I'm not sure if this is the best way to render non-tracking branches, but it helps to write CLI tests. Maybe we can add some hint or decoration to non-tracking branches, but I'd like to avoid bikeshedding at this point. Since we haven't migrated the push function yet, a deleted branch can be pushed to non-tracking remotes. This will be addressed later. jj-vcs#1136

I'm not sure if this is the best way to render non-tracking branches, but it helps to write CLI tests. Maybe we can add some hint or decoration to non-tracking branches, but I'd like to avoid bikeshedding at this point. Since we haven't migrated the push function yet, a deleted branch can be pushed to non-tracking remotes. This will be addressed later. #1136

Although this is logically correct, the error message is a bit cryptic. It's probably better to reject push if non-tracking remote branches exist. jj-vcs#1136

Although this is logically correct, the error message is a bit cryptic. It's probably better to reject push if non-tracking remote branches exist. #1136

… them I personally don't mind if "jj branch list" showed all non-tracking branches, but I agree it would be a mess if ~500 remote branches were listed. So let's hide them by default since non-tracking branches aren't so interesting. Closes jj-vcs#1136

I personally don't mind if "jj branch list" showed all non-tracking branches, but I agree it would be a mess if ~500 remote branches were listed. So let's hide them by default as non-tracking branches aren't so interesting. Closes jj-vcs#1136

ppwwyyxx · 2023-10-22T06:38:41Z

Thanks @yuja for adding this. I think it's better to also hide these branches in jj log by default?

yuja · 2023-10-22T07:23:28Z

I think it's better to also hide these branches in jj log by default?

I prefer to see remote branches in log, but we should have some way to hide them. Maybe we can add local_branches template keyword for that purpose.

As far as I can see in the chat, there's no objection to changing the default, and git.auto-local-branch = false is generally preferred. docs/branches.md isn't updated as it would otherwise conflict with jj-vcs#2625. I think the "Remotes" section will need a non-trivial rewrite. jj-vcs#1136, jj-vcs#1862

As far as I can see in the chat, there's no objection to changing the default, and git.auto-local-branch = false is generally preferred. docs/branches.md isn't updated as it would otherwise conflict with #2625. I think the "Remotes" section will need a non-trivial rewrite. #1136, #1862

chooglen added the enhancement New feature or request label Jan 27, 2023

chooglen mentioned this issue Jan 27, 2023

Disable auto local branch creation with config option #894

Merged

3 tasks

rslabbert mentioned this issue Mar 23, 2023

Add jj git push --stack to push all working branches #1415

Open

yuja mentioned this issue Jun 27, 2023

FR: better design for ignoring branches #1734

Closed

6 tasks

yuja mentioned this issue Jul 1, 2023

cli: add revset filter to "branch list" #1762

Merged

4 tasks

yuja added a commit to yuja/jj that referenced this issue Aug 14, 2023

doc: add plan for non-tracking branches support

62d23c7

jj-vcs#1136, jj-vcs#1666, jj-vcs#1734

yuja mentioned this issue Aug 14, 2023

doc: add plan for non-tracking branches support (RFC) #2074

Merged

4 tasks

yuja added a commit to yuja/jj that referenced this issue Aug 14, 2023

doc: add plan for non-tracking branches support

58a389a

jj-vcs#1136, jj-vcs#1666, jj-vcs#1734

yuja added a commit to yuja/jj that referenced this issue Aug 15, 2023

doc: add plan for non-tracking branches support

10a1df5

jj-vcs#1136, jj-vcs#1666, jj-vcs#1734

yuja added a commit to yuja/jj that referenced this issue Aug 15, 2023

doc: add plan for non-tracking branches support

c132f5a

jj-vcs#1136, jj-vcs#1666, jj-vcs#1734

yuja added a commit that referenced this issue Aug 23, 2023

doc: add plan for non-tracking branches support

aae9aa4

#1136, #1666, #1734

yuja added a commit to yuja/jj that referenced this issue Oct 16, 2023

refs: classify push action based on tracking target

d176611

Although this is logically correct, the error message is a bit cryptic. It's probably better to reject push if non-tracking remote branches exist. jj-vcs#1136

yuja added a commit to yuja/jj that referenced this issue Oct 17, 2023

refs: classify push action based on tracking target

97dd1b8

Although this is logically correct, the error message is a bit cryptic. It's probably better to reject push if non-tracking remote branches exist. jj-vcs#1136

yuja added a commit that referenced this issue Oct 17, 2023

refs: classify push action based on tracking target

089503a

Although this is logically correct, the error message is a bit cryptic. It's probably better to reject push if non-tracking remote branches exist. #1136

yuja mentioned this issue Oct 17, 2023

cli: hide non-tracking remote branches by default, add option to list… #2395

Closed

4 tasks

yuja mentioned this issue Oct 18, 2023

cli: hide non-tracking remote branches by default, --all to show all remotes/locals #2396

Merged

4 tasks

yuja closed this as completed in d92be66 Oct 18, 2023

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Support git-like remote and local branch UX #1136

Support git-like remote and local branch UX #1136

chooglen commented Jan 27, 2023 •

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martinvonz commented Jan 27, 2023

samueltardieu commented Jan 27, 2023

martinvonz commented Jan 27, 2023

ilyagr commented Jul 1, 2023 •

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ppwwyyxx commented Oct 22, 2023

yuja commented Oct 22, 2023

Support git-like remote and local branch UX #1136

Support git-like remote and local branch UX #1136

Comments

chooglen commented Jan 27, 2023 • edited Loading

Description

Proposal

martinvonz commented Jan 27, 2023

samueltardieu commented Jan 27, 2023

martinvonz commented Jan 27, 2023

ilyagr commented Jul 1, 2023 • edited Loading

ppwwyyxx commented Oct 22, 2023

yuja commented Oct 22, 2023

chooglen commented Jan 27, 2023 •

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ilyagr commented Jul 1, 2023 •

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