Prefer commit IDs over branch names when generating URLs?

[mjcheetham]

Should we prefer generating URLs with a specific commit ID rather than a branch name?

A branch isn't stable over time and old generated links (especially those with selection information) will therefore break as the file's contents changes.

If we decided to do this (prefer commit ID) do we also want to provide an option "try and resolve to branch name" for those users who do want a link to the branch?

[ipmsteven]

Hi Matthew, I prefer commit SHA over branch name when locating a change in git, as you mentioned that branch is more like pointer that is always changing(like master branch), while SHA is a unique identifier.

BTW: do you have a use case which a branch name have to be used instead of SHA?