CODEWITHSUNDEEP
git
ams
ams

Reputation: 62682

When should git orphaned branches be used?

Git can host multiple DAGs in the same repo with git checkout --orphan command. A frequently cited use case this feature of git is to keep separate a branch for docs or the GitHub gh-pages orphaned branch for creating a static website.

Are there other reasons to use orphaned branches in git?

Upvotes: 38

Views: 12399

Answers (3)

Guildenstern
Guildenstern

Reputation: 3801

The Git project repository mirror on GitHub has a todo branch where the maintainer has some notes and apparently scripts which helps him make announcements like the status updates for the project (“What’s Cooking”).[1]

> ls
add-by      CB                    cook                   dodoc.sh            git-topic.perl  KO          people           RB              Release    round    taboo.perl  WCBCC
amlook      Checklist.txt         Count                  Doit                Gitweb          Linus       post-applypatch  README.cooking  RelSave    RP       TODO        whats-cooking.txt
Announce    CheckPush             count-contributors.sh  DoKernelOrg         GRADUATED       MaintNotes  pre-applypatch   Reintegrate     RelSign    SE       UWC         WI
AT          check-topic-merges    cycle-run              Dothem              info            Make        ProjectContact   RelBuild        RelStat    SR       V           worklog
candidates  compare-cooking.perl  docbuild-8.sh          genMaintNotes.perl  jc.png          ML          pushall          RelClean        RelUpload  Summary  WC

The last message that was sent out can be viewed in whats-cooking.txt.

So this isn’t a “separate a branch for docs” (that stuff is on the main branch) but rather a separate branch for managing announcements. And perhaps other stuff.

Here is the first commit on this branch, which of course is a root commit (no parents):

commit 1bd90415deccc4562e0fb4d0f8e58140aa687ac1
Author: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>
Date:   Fri Aug 26 00:32:15 2005 -0700

    Keep track of to-do document.

    This is written in a form of to-do list for me, so if I say
    "accept patch", it means I do not currently plan to do that
    myself.  People interested in seeing it materialize please take
    a hint.

    Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>

† 1: As of commit acb9ef215eb2 (What's cooking (2023/03 #01), 2023-03-01)

Upvotes: 0

Peter Olson
Peter Olson

Reputation: 906

Another possible use of this is for combining multiple repositories into one. A few examples:

In these cases you will have two separate DAGs in the same repository before they are merged into a single unified tree. Thus this is not as much a long-term use, but an action that will temporarily pass through the state of having separate DAGs in the same repository.

Upvotes: 15

toraritte
toraritte

Reputation: 8283

Another use case by the git online documentation:

This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of code.

Upvotes: 8

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