GitHub for Mac style sync?

[AjayMT]

Perhaps we could have a hub sync command that performs the equivalent of pressing the 'Sync' button in the GitHub for Mac app? I can implement this once I know exactly what the Sync button does. According to the GitHub for Mac FAQ:

We do the equivalent of a git pull --rebase (but make sure to never rewrite merges).

Maybe hub sync can simply do something like git pull --rebase=preserve. Or we could wrap git pull and add a --sync option that does the same thing.

Does anyone else think this would be a nice feature to have? Any ideas/thoughts?

[mislav]

👍 Very good idea. This project might become GitHub official CLI tool and having the same operations as the ones in the desktop app is a win for the user in my opinion.

@dannygreg What is even a "sync" on Mac?

[mislav]

@jspahrsummers explains what is a "Sync" on Mac. It's some serious magic using libgit2, but it boils down to:

1. git fetch
2. git rebase (if needed) or git merge (if a rebase would result in conflicts)
3. git push (if no conflicts occurred)
4. Fast-forward branches other than just the current one

[AjayMT]

Interesting... I'm still trying to figure out whether this is something we can do by only wrapping git commands (i.e something we can do without having to use libgit2/rugged or some other git library).

Accomplishing step 2 (git rebase or git merge based on conflicts) seems like the biggest challenge right now.