checkout: don't revert file on ambiguous tracking branches

For easier understanding, here are the existing good scenarios:

  1) Have *no* file 'foo', *no* local branch 'foo' and a *single*
     remote branch 'foo'
  2) `git checkout foo` will create local branch foo, see [1]

  and

  1) Have *a* file 'foo', *no* local branch 'foo' and a *single*
     remote branch 'foo'
  2) `git checkout foo` will complain, see [3]

This patch prevents the following scenario:

  1) Have *a* file 'foo', *no* local branch 'foo' and *multiple*
     remote branches 'foo'
  2) `git checkout foo` will successfully... revert contents of
     file `foo`!

That is, adding another remote suddenly changes behavior significantly,
which is a surprise at best and could go unnoticed by user at worst.
Please see [3] which gives some real world complaints.

To my understanding, fix in [3] overlooked the case of multiple remotes,
and the whole behavior of falling back to reverting file was never
intended:

  [1] introduces the unexpected behavior. Before, there was fallback
  from not-a-ref to pathspec. This is reasonable fallback. After, there
  is another fallback from ambiguous-remote to pathspec. I understand
  that it was a copy&paste oversight.

  [2] noticed the unexpected behavior but chose to semi-document it
  instead of forbidding, because the goal of the patch series was
  focused on something else.

  [3] adds `die()` when there is ambiguity between branch and file. The
  case of multiple tracking branches is seemingly overlooked.

The new behavior: if there is no local branch and multiple remote
candidates, just die() and don't try reverting file whether it
exists (prevents surprise) or not (improves error message).

[1] Commit 70c9ac2f ("DWIM "git checkout frotz" to "git checkout -b frotz origin/frotz"" 2009-10-18)
    https://public-inbox.org/git/7vaazpxha4.fsf_-_@alter.siamese.dyndns.org/
[2] Commit ad8d5104 ("checkout: add advice for ambiguous "checkout <branch>"", 2018-06-05)
    https://public-inbox.org/git/20180502105452.17583-1-avarab@gmail.com/
[3] Commit be4908f1 ("checkout: disambiguate dwim tracking branches and local files", 2018-11-13)
    https://public-inbox.org/git/20181110120707.25846-1-pclouds@gmail.com/

Signed-off-by: Alexandr Miloslavskiy <alexandr.miloslavskiy@syntevo.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/t/t2024-checkout-dwim.sh b/t/t2024-checkout-dwim.sh
index fa0718c730..accfa9aa4b 100755
--- a/t/t2024-checkout-dwim.sh
+++ b/t/t2024-checkout-dwim.sh
@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@ test_expect_success 'setup' '
 		git checkout -b foo &&
 		test_commit a_foo &&
 		git checkout -b bar &&
-		test_commit a_bar
+		test_commit a_bar &&
+		git checkout -b ambiguous_branch_and_file &&
+		test_commit a_ambiguous_branch_and_file
 	) &&
 	git init repo_b &&
 	(
@@ -46,7 +48,9 @@ test_expect_success 'setup' '
 		git checkout -b foo &&
 		test_commit b_foo &&
 		git checkout -b baz &&
-		test_commit b_baz
+		test_commit b_baz &&
+		git checkout -b ambiguous_branch_and_file &&
+		test_commit b_ambiguous_branch_and_file
 	) &&
 	git remote add repo_a repo_a &&
 	git remote add repo_b repo_b &&
@@ -75,6 +79,26 @@ test_expect_success 'checkout of branch from multiple remotes fails #1' '
 	test_branch master
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'when arg matches multiple remotes, do not fallback to interpreting as pathspec' '
+	# create a file with name matching remote branch name
+	git checkout -b t_ambiguous_branch_and_file &&
+	>ambiguous_branch_and_file &&
+	git add ambiguous_branch_and_file &&
+	git commit -m "ambiguous_branch_and_file" &&
+
+	# modify file to verify that it will not be touched by checkout
+	test_when_finished "git checkout -- ambiguous_branch_and_file" &&
+	echo "file contents" >ambiguous_branch_and_file &&
+	cp ambiguous_branch_and_file expect &&
+
+	test_must_fail git checkout ambiguous_branch_and_file 2>err &&
+
+	test_i18ngrep "matched multiple (2) remote tracking branches" err &&
+
+	# file must not be altered
+	test_cmp expect ambiguous_branch_and_file
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'checkout of branch from multiple remotes fails with advice' '
 	git checkout -B master &&
 	test_might_fail git branch -D foo &&