• Describe the issue

The fedpkg request-branch command has a flag that allows you to skip automatic creation of the branch in dist-git.

  --no-git-branch       Don't create the branch in git but still create it in PDC

This is useful if you're trying to create a new branch as an orphan with no history, such as for a new EPEL branch. I attempted this with an epel10 branch.

https://pagure.io/releng/fedora-scm-requests/issue/63965

releng-bot claimed it worked and closed the ticket as processed. But when I tried to push my local epel10 branch to the remote, it failed.

❯ git push -u origin epel10 
Enumerating objects: 5, done.
Counting objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Delta compression using up to 16 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Writing objects: 100% (5/5), 907 bytes | 907.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 5 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
remote: Unspecified ref refs/heads/epel10 is blocked
remote: Denied push for ref 'refs/heads/epel10' for user 'carlwgeorge'
remote: All changes have been rejected
To ssh://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/rpms/epel-rpm-macros
 ! [remote rejected] epel10 -> epel10 (pre-receive hook declined)
error: failed to push some refs to 'ssh://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/rpms/epel-rpm-macros'

I was able to work around this by re-running the branch request without that flag, which created the branch in dist-git and didn't seem to mind the previous request.

https://pagure.io/releng/fedora-scm-requests/issue/63971

The only notable difference is that this started the branch with an "Initial setup of the repo" commit from years ago when this repo was first created. This can also change how commits for a branch are presented in the pagure web interface. This isn't a big deal, but it is nice to have the option to start with an orphan branch and push to it yourself with independent commits. My guess is this is a side effect of the PDC retirement.

• When do you need this? (YYYY/MM/DD)

No deadline, there is a function workaround and I consider the orphan ability to be an optional feature. But it is one that would be nice to get restored, if possible.

• When is this no longer needed or useful? (YYYY/MM/DD)

It will be useful for as long as we're using git for package sources.

• If we cannot complete your request, what is the impact?

The --no-git-branch flag will stay broken. Maintainers will not be able to create branches locally and push them to dist-git, and instead will always have to start with the original commit from the rawhide branch.