[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #248: Enhance GetComponents functionality when dealing with git branches

[Einstein Toolkit]

#248: Enhance GetComponents functionality when dealing with git branches
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  Reporter:  bmundim        |       Owner:  eric9       
      Type:  enhancement    |      Status:  accepted    
  Priority:  minor          |   Milestone:              
 Component:  GetComponents  |     Version:              
Resolution:                 |    Keywords:  git branches
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Comment (by eschnett):

 You specify different branches for the same directory (arrangement/thorn).
 Which branch should be checked out?

 It would be easy to pull (download) all branches into the repository, but
 only one branch can be checked out.

 If all available branches are pulled, but only one branch is checked out,
 then you can still switch between the branches manually. When updating or
 examining the status, GetComponents could ignore the branch specified in
 the thorn list and instead look at the branch currently checked out. This
 is somewhat dangerous (since some people will forget that they switched to
 a branch or a tag), but a message may suffice for this.

 svn supports the same mechanism, we could treat it in the same way, i.e.
 checking out all branches, and then setting symbolic links to the desired
 branch or tag. (The language is different here, "check out" means
 different things for git and svn.)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/248#comment:3>
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