Re: [PATCH v2] archive: make --add-virtual-file honor --prefix

From: René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
Date: May 20, 2024, 17:07 UTC
Message-ID: <01b21870-b37e-47fe-9bd7-225499ae5eaf@web.de>
In-Reply-To: <95B94723-BCBF-48B4-A02C-A5C61FB060DA@llnl.gov>

Am 20.05.24 um 18:10 schrieb Tom Scogland:

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>
> On 19 May 2024, at 6:25, René Scharfe wrote:
>
>> You can already specify any path you want with --add-virtual-file.
>> What's the advantage of honoring --prefix as well?
>
> I came into this after trying to translate an --add-file to an
> --add-virtual-file and being surprised that the prefix wasn't
> applied.

Understandable, the documentation promised otherwise and the options have very similar names.

> anything else you add, in the repo or not, it gets the prefix.> I can go back and explicitly add the prefix, but it makes the
> options less naturally composable in my opinion.

True, applying the prefix to all items would be simpler overall.

Speaking of simpler: --add-virtual-file could have been implemented to only take a single argument -- the content -- and rely on --prefix to provide the full path. That's more consistent with other options, as most of them only take single-valued arguments (or none). :]

> That said, it sounds like both you and Junio prefer updating the docs
> rather than the code, which makes me think I'm in the minority in
> that opinion.

I'm not sure I have an opinion on that topic, yet. Fixing the documentation is certainly easier. Adding the prefix to the path of virtual files as well is a breaking change. I feel that the easier route should at least be mentioned in the commit message and why it was not taken.

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> If that's the case, I can certainly update the docs, and I imagine we
> can backport that easily wherever it makes sense.  I would really
> like to have the option to have the prefix apply though, either
> adding a new flag or an option to the existing one that would be
> invalid given current syntax or similar to provide the option.

You mean like replacing a leading colon in the path with the prefix?

René