jj git clone --origin NAME

[samueltardieu]

Would it be useful to add --origin NAME (or --remote NAME) to use another name than origin as the default remote?

My use case is that I often participate to projects hosted on GitHub. I call the upstream remote upstream, and when I contribute my own fork is origin. I track the main branchfromupstream`, and private branches from origin.

I would like to be able to do:

$ jj git clone --origin upstream https://github.com/…
$ jj git remote add origin [email protected]:samueltardieu/…

Right now, I have to create and clone my fork (even though I'm not sure I'll contribute yet), and then add the upstream remote, untrack main and track main@upstream. Or I must clone the upstream, rename origin as upstream, forget about main and track main@upstream, then I can add my origin remote when it is needed.

I have the feeling that being able to set the original remote name (as in git clone --origin NAME https://…) would allow smoother processes.

--origin NAME could also be --remote NAME. --origin is how git calls it, --remote is the standard arg name used by jj.

If people think this might be useful, I might devise a PR containing this feature.

[emilazy]

FWIW I used to do the origin/upstream thing, but have found I am much happier making origin always the upstream and adding an emily remote for my own forks. I set git.fetch to ["origin", "emily"], git.push to "emily", always use HTTPS URLs, and put this in my Git config:

[url "[email protected]:"]
    pushInsteadOf = "https://github.com/"

I know this isn’t really a direct solution to your problem, but it’s great. No regrets. Try it out.

[samueltardieu]

Hi Emily.

Happy to see you're satisfied with those names. I've tried this naming scheme in the past, but it didn't really catch with me. I set my git.{fetch,push} in a similar way as yours (I even think I'm the one who implemented this in jj, ages ago).

Incidentally, I didn't know of the url substitution in the git config, I'll have a closer look, thanks!

[samueltardieu]

I have opened #4449 to test the idea.