Unable to change Label of Local Repo

Please summarize the issue in the title, and then use the template below to fill out the details so we can reproduce the issue on our end.

Description

When I clone a repo multiple times it has the same name within the application even though each entry has different local folders. I should be able to set a name so I can easily distinguish between each duplicate. You ask why am I duplicating them? Because I use a different tool to upload changes to the server since I don’t get direct server access to use the git command line tool to just update the repo on the server.

Version

What version of GitHub Desktop are you running? This is displayed under the About GitHub Desktop menu item. If you are running from source, include the commit by running git rev-parse HEAD from your local repository.

GitHub Desktop version: 0.5.9

The operating system you are running on may also help with reproducing the issue:

• If you are on macOS, launch About This Mac and write down the OS version listed.
• If you are on Windows, open Command Prompt and attach the output of this command*: cmd /c ver

OS version: Mac OS Sierra 10.12.5

Steps to Reproduce

1. Clone a repo.
2. Clone it again into a new folder.

If the issue involves a specific public repository, including the information about that repository will make it is easier to recreate the issue.

If you think screenshots or a GIF recording will help demonstrate the issue better, feel free to add them here.

Expected behavior: Change the label that shows in the application for the repo.

Actual behavior: No way to change the repo label.

Reproduces how often: Every time.

Logs

There may be some relevant information in log files generated by GitHub Desktop:

• If you are on macOS, attach the most recent log file from: ~/Library/Application Support/GitHub Desktop/logs/*.desktop.production.log
• If you are on Windows, attach the most recent log file from: %APPDATA%\\GitHub Desktop\\logs\\*.desktop.production.log

The log files are organized by date, so see if anything was generated for today’s date.

Full Log Pasted

2017-05-22T18:02:36.418Z - info: Opt in reported. 2017-05-23T16:02:20.192Z - info: Stats reported. 2017-06-01T21:43:34.128Z - info: Stats reported. 2017-06-07T18:26:51.969Z - info: Stats reported.

Additional Information

Any additional information, configuration or data that might be necessary to reproduce the issue.

This is probably a feature request but maybe I’ve missed something? I’ve been using SourceTree for a while now but my company is switching from BitBucket to Github Enterprise. I haven’t been able to get SourceTree to work with Github Enterprise with SSH due to authentication via 3rd party service (Okta).

Happy to provide any other information.

tags: duplicate repository name label repo same two

[steveward]

Feedback from https://github.com/desktop/desktop/issues/4576:

It’d be great, if there was a way to rename a repository.

I have a project that is split into two repos: project/client and project/server. The app shows client and server only.

I suppose, it could take .git/description file into the account. This file is used in GitWeb for example.

[innocuo]

There’s a temporary workaround, although not recommended at all, is to edit the renderer.js file directly in the installed GithubDesktop, to show the full path instead of the folder name.

It should be in c:/Users/[username]/AppData/Local/GithubDesktop/app1.4.2/resources/app/renderer.js Look for the text “s.HighlightText,{text:e.name,highlight:this.props.matches.title” and replace e.name with e.path.

Obviously, I’d discourage this unless you know what you’re doing, because renderer.js is minimized, so it’s not easy to edit, and one mistake and you’ll break your app.

If you’re compiling from source, you can also change repository-list-item.tsx, line 120 ( text={repository.name} ).

A little bit more info for those interested: the indexedDB, that has the repositories list, doesn’t have a name field. So there’s no label/name/field that can be edited. The app “gets” the name directly from the repository path. I’m guessing that’s why this feature hasn’t been added, because it’d require some work (like adding new fields in the db, a ui to edit it, etc).

@steveward I think an improvement with less impact may be to display the path name over/under the repo label in tiny grey text, instead of as a tooltip. Additionally, maybe this can be added as an option.