[deathanatos]

> The central repository is the only point that knows (with 100% certainty) which ref the branch was set to before the force push.

git reports it to you when you do the force push:

  % git push github master --force
  …
  Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
  To https://github.com/foo/repo.git
   + 4d44b63...ad5b147 master -> master (forced update)
       ^          ^
     previous    what you've forced it to

Of course, if you lose the output, then yes, the reflog is the only thing that has it. But force pushing is so rare, and something that (should) is done with care, I'm puzzled as to how someone "accidentally" >150 repos.

[ricket]

Luca details the three things that led to this mass force push in his message here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/jenkinsci-dev/-myjRIPcVwU/v8...

[chatman]

If losing this output is such a problem and force pushing is so rare, then Github could email this output with the two hashes to every developer on every force push.

[swift]

This seems like a good idea. (With a setting to turn it off, of course.)

Ideally git itself should record this information somewhere, though.

[cjh_]

I was assuming after the fact as that information is not saved anywhere client side.

Also I am not sure what he did to push to 150 remotes, and in that case this output would be much more tedious to piece together (and that is assuming he was able to capture all of it).

However I disagree that force pushing is rare, I find it is a (sharp) tool I use most days (more often on private repos or branches).

I do like the idea of github providing some kind of web interface to view the reflog and reset branches to various points within it.