Re: [PATCH] help.c: Pull cmd_version out of this file.

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 27, 2010, 16:45 UTC
Message-ID: <20101027164508.GB11069@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinxG-=EKeNH3--34Ya4w0E=i_bdmJ7iv2em8C+8@mail.gmail.com>

Thiago Farina wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 1:18 PM, Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> wrote:

>> I thought there was some discussion about another binary in
>> /usr/lib/git-core being a bad thing?
>
> I don't recall, why it's a bad thing?

Because those hardlinks for builtins are present for historical reasons only. They slow down filename lookup by some miniscule amount and tempt authors of scripts to try the dashed form of commands.

Ah, found it.[1]

| At this point, adding the dashed-form "git-version" to the filesystem is
| going backwards.  These files are only to help people who have old scripts
| from pre 1.6.0 days with "PATH=$(git --exec-path):$PATH" with their
| environment.
| 
| We should instead try to not adding them (which would probably need tweak
| in the command list generation code in "git help"), as nobody from pre
| 1.6.0 era would have called "git-version" binary.

Hope that helps.

[1] 4a7a62f3:whats-cooking.txt http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/155073