Document init script behavior when multiple remotes have master

EliahKagan · claude · EliahKagan · commit b5ae6c060783 · 2026-05-09T21:52:13.000-04:00
When `master` is locally absent and more than one remote has it, `git checkout master --` refuses to disambiguate (even if those remote-tracking branches all agree on a commit), so the script falls back to creating `master` at `HEAD`. The reflog populated by the resets below then traces `HEAD`'s history rather than a remote `master`'s. This is harmless -- `master` is reset to `__testing_point__` either way -- but unintuitive. Add a comment so a reader of the script does not have to discover this from a confusing run. Closes #2145. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
diff --git a/init-tests-after-clone.sh b/init-tests-after-clone.sh
@@ -39,7 +39,12 @@ fi
 # This also keeps track of where we are, so we can get back here.
 git tag __testing_point__
 
-# The tests need a branch called master.
+# The tests need a branch called master. If master is locally absent but more
+# than one remote has it, "git checkout master --" fails (even if all those
+# remote-tracking branches point to the same commit), and we fall back to
+# creating master at HEAD. The reflog from the resets below then traces HEAD's
+# history rather than a remote master's, but master is reset to
+# __testing_point__ either way.
 git checkout master -- || git checkout -b master
 
 # The tests need a reflog history on the master branch.
