{"thread":{"id":"64819","subject":"README update proposition","startedAt":"2026-01-16T11:22:53Z","lastAt":"2026-01-16T17:09:56Z","messageCount":2,"participants":["Oskar Jaskólski","Junio C Hamano"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"534027","messageId":"CAFp-0Pz_BdZwA4Pn=jUxvYu1prj0F85q+3GWSW-G6LF=cSHn8A@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"64819","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"README update proposition","fromName":"Oskar Jaskólski","fromEmail":"oskarrro90@gmail.com","sentAt":"2026-01-16T11:22:39Z","receivedAt":"2026-01-16T11:22:53Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"oskarrro90@gmail.com","avatar":null},"body":"Hello everyone!\n\nIs it possible to apply the attached patch? I was trying to \"build\" git-gui,\nbut I was seeing the Tcl/Tk for the first time.. Now I know that `Tk` is\nused to generate the GUI, and `Tcl` is the scripting language used by `Tk`.\nThe `wish` command is used to execute the `Tk` code.\n\nI was thinking that I have to install all three dependencies but it turned\nout that I need just to install one `tcl/tk` package.\n\nGreetings,\nOskar Jaskólski\n\n\nFrom 3c422f664032989a230ba3f4303485ccfa034660 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001\nFrom: =?UTF-8?q?Oskar=20Jask=C3=B3lski?= <oskarrro90@gmail.com>\nDate: Fri, 16 Jan 2026 12:08:21 +0100\nSubject: [PATCH] git-gui: update README to clarify Tcl/Tk dependencies and\n build process\nMIME-Version: 1.0\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n\nSigned-off-by: Oskar Jaskólski <oskarrro90@gmail.com>\n---\n README.md | 19 ++++++++++++-------\n 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)\n\ndiff --git a/README.md b/README.md\nindex 948e925..0efe1bb 100644\n--- a/README.md\n+++ b/README.md\n@@ -16,15 +16,20 @@ standard Git installation.\n You need to have the following dependencies installed before you begin:\n \n - Git\n-- Tcl\n-- Tk\n-- wish\n-- Gitk (needed for browsing history)\n+- wish (Tcl/Tk runtime required to run the Git GUI)\n+- Gitk (optional, needed for browsing history)\n - msgfmt\n \n-Most of Git GUI is written in Tcl, so there is no compilation involved. Still,\n-some things do need to be done (mostly some substitutions), so you do need to\n-\"build\" it.\n+Git GUI is implemented in Tcl/Tk and is executed as a script via the `wish`\n+runtime. If `wish` is available in your PATH, no separate Tcl or Tk installation\n+is required.\n+\n+On most systems, `wish` is provided by the system Tcl/Tk package. If it is not\n+available, see https://www.tcl-lang.org/software/tcltk/ for installation\n+options.\n+\n+There is no compilation involved. The build step only performs minor\n+substitutions.\n \n You can build Git GUI using:\n \n-- \n2.43.0\n\n"},{"id":"534059","messageId":"xmqq7btha3ha.fsf@gitster.g","threadId":"64819","inReplyTo":"CAFp-0Pz_BdZwA4Pn=jUxvYu1prj0F85q+3GWSW-G6LF=cSHn8A@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: README update proposition","fromName":"Junio C Hamano","fromEmail":"gitster@pobox.com","sentAt":"2026-01-16T17:09:53Z","receivedAt":"2026-01-16T17:09:56Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"gitster@pobox.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/54884?v=4"},"body":"Oskar Jaskólski <oskarrro90@gmail.com> writes:\n\n> @@ -16,15 +16,20 @@ standard Git installation.\n>  You need to have the following dependencies installed before you begin:\n>  \n>  - Git\n> -- Tcl\n> -- Tk\n> -- wish\n> -- Gitk (needed for browsing history)\n> +- wish (Tcl/Tk runtime required to run the Git GUI)\n> +- Gitk (optional, needed for browsing history)\n\nHiding the mention of Tcl/Tk may be a small regression for users\ndepending on what distribution is on.  On Debian based systems,\n\"wish\" is merely a virtual package and the package to install is\n\"tk\", for example.\n\nIs Gitk truly \"optional\"?  When running git-gui there are a few menu\nitems that invoke gitk.  Does the rest of the document inform users\nwell enough to avoid touching these features?  I'd think that we\nwould rather want the README talk about giving a fairly complete\ninstallation without such limitation.\n\nThe parenthesized explanation on \"wish\" is a good addition, though,\nand we may want to keep it even if we were to drop everything else\nin this patch.\n\n> -Most of Git GUI is written in Tcl, so there is no compilation involved. Still,\n> -some things do need to be done (mostly some substitutions), so you do need to\n> -\"build\" it.\n> +Git GUI is implemented in Tcl/Tk and is executed as a script via the `wish`\n> +runtime. If `wish` is available in your PATH, no separate Tcl or Tk installation\n> +is required.\n\nIf this were in the end-user instruction, being clear and concise\nlike the updated text is a very good thing, BUT because this is in\nthe building-and-installing section, I doubt this is a good change.\n\nThe build procedure (in git-gui/Makefile), would try to run \"tclsh\"\nwhich is often found in the Tcl package, when it needs to use po2msg\non a system without msgfmt, which are all part of the install/build\nprocedure.  Again, if somebody already built git-gui for you, I\nagree that all you need to have is \"wish\" and \"gitk\", but that is\nnot the target audience of this section, is it?\n"}]}