Re: Should we discuss Windows-related changes on git@vger.kernel.org?

From: Steffen Prohaska <prohaska@zib.de>
Date: Jul 12, 2008, 08:07 UTC
Message-ID: <03AA6CC0-B64C-4FB8-98F1-79E3E7128713@zib.de>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0807112226190.8950@racer>

On Jul 11, 2008, at 11:38 PM, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

>> Another example is the discussion about GIT_EXEC_PATH, see
>>
>> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.msysgit/2633
>
> This is a particularly good example that does not matter for Linux,
> MacOSX, Solaris or the BSDs (Git's principal platforms!) at all.
>
> And once this patch hits git@vger, it is still visible to other  
> platforms.

Hmm... on Mac OS X, applications can typically be moved freely in the filesystem. Installing such an application means no more than mounting a disk image that contains a directory that you can drag and drop to any location in the filesystem. You do not need administrative rights to do this.

For command line programs, like git, moving the installation freely is less common. Installers often place everything in /usr/local/ (they need administrative rights to do so). But there are other examples too. For example, I have other vims installed in addition to the system's vim:

   /Applications/vim70/Vim.app
   /Applications/MacVim-snapshot-24/mvim

that I can freely move around.

The result of our discussion on GIT_EXEC_PATH might be useful to achieve something similar for git -- although I think that it is not an essential feature.

	Steffen