Re: [RFC/PATCH 0/5] stop installing old libexec aliases like "git-init"

From: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
To: "Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>
Cc: Git Mailing List <git@vger.kernel.org>,
	Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>,
	dnj@google.com, Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>,
	prohaska@zib.de, john@keeping.me.uk, stanhu@gmail.com,
	richardc@unixbeard.net, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Subject: Re: [RFC/PATCH 0/5] stop installing old libexec aliases like "git-init"
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2018 17:00:13 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAMy9T_EVh5Xa7wZFRSM+uGAKV7WSPRALRRaZhPaj_bg9v7Ohfg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87k1ld1f51.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com>

On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 11:38 AM Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
<avarab@gmail.com> wrote:
> [...]
> A follow-up on this: We should really fix this for other
> reasons. I.e. compile in some "this is stuff we ourselves think is in
> git".
>
> There's other manifestations of this, e.g.:
>
>     git-sizer --help # => shows you help
>     git sizer --help # => says it doesn't have a manpage
>
> Because we aren't aware that git-sizer is some external tool, and that
> we should route --help to it.

That would be nice. This has been an annoying for several tools named
`git-foo` that I have worked on (e.g., git-sizer, git-imerge,
git-when-merged, plus many internal tools).

> Non-withstanding the arguable bug that things like git-sizer shouldn't
> be allowing themselves to be invoked by "git" like that without
> guaranteeing that it can consume all the options 'git' expects. When I
> had to deal with a similar problem in an external git-* command I was
> maintaining I simply made it an error to invoke it as "git mything"
> instead of "git-mything".

Hmmm, I always thought that it was intended and supported that an
external tool can name itself `git-foo` so that it can be invoked as
`git foo`.

Which git options do you think that such a tool should be expected to
support? Many useful ones, like `-C <path>`, `--git-dir=<path>`,
`--work-tree=<path>`, `-c <name>=<value>`, and `--no-replace-objects`,
work pretty much for free if the external tool uses `git` to interact
with the repository. I use such options regularly with external tools.
IMO it would be a regression for these tools to refuse to run when
invoked as, say, `git -C path/to/repo foo`.

Michael