[PATCH v2] meson: wire up gitk and git-gui

From

Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>

Date

Feb 4, 2026, 08:38 UTC

Message-ID

<20260204-b4-pks-meson-tcl-tk-v2-1-5bc3ccf3a8ce@pks.im>

In-Reply-To

<20250819-b4-pks-meson-tcl-tk-v1-0-6bcaff0bc0a0@pks.im>

Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
---
Hi,

Changes in v2:
  - Use symlinks instead of moving both gitk and git-gui into the
    "subprojects/" directory.
  - Rebased on v2.53.0, as it's been a while since v1 :)
  - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250819-b4-pks-meson-tcl-tk-v1-0-6bcaff0bc0a0@pks.im

Thanks!

Patrick

[1]: https://github.com/j6t/gitk/pull/8
[2]: https://github.com/j6t/git-gui/pull/9
---
 meson.build         | 14 ++++++++++++++
 meson_options.txt   |  4 ++++
 subprojects/git-gui |  1 +
 subprojects/gitk    |  1 +
 4 files changed, 20 insertions(+)

diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index dd52efd1c8..e96953afec 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -239,7 +239,9 @@ git = find_program('git', dirs: program_path, native: true, required: false)
 sed = find_program('sed', dirs: program_path, native: true)
 shell = find_program('sh', dirs: program_path, native: true)
 tar = find_program('tar', dirs: program_path, native: true)
+tclsh = find_program('tclsh', required: get_option('git_gui'), native: false)
 time = find_program('time', dirs: program_path, required: get_option('benchmarks'))
+wish = find_program('wish', required: get_option('git_gui').enabled() or get_option('gitk').enabled(), native: false)
 
 # Detect the target shell that is used by Git at runtime. Note that we prefer
 # "/bin/sh" over a PATH-based lookup, which provides a working shell on most
@@ -2250,6 +2252,16 @@ configure_file(
   configuration: build_options_config,
 )
 
+gitk_option = get_option('gitk').disable_auto_if(not wish.found())
+if gitk_option.allowed()
+  subproject('gitk')
+endif
+
+git_gui_option = get_option('git_gui').disable_auto_if(not tclsh.found() or not wish.found())
+if git_gui_option.allowed()
+  subproject('git-gui')
+endif
+
 # Development environments can be used via `meson devenv -C <builddir>`. This
 # allows you to execute test scripts directly with the built Git version and
 # puts the built version of Git in your PATH.
@@ -2276,6 +2288,8 @@ summary({
   'curl': curl,
   'expat': expat,
   'gettext': intl,
+  'gitk': gitk_option.allowed(),
+  'git-gui': git_gui_option.allowed(),
   'gitweb': gitweb_option.allowed(),
   'iconv': iconv,
   'pcre2': pcre2,
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index e0be260ae1..659cbb218f 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ option('expat', type: 'feature', value: 'enabled',
   description: 'Build helpers used to push to remotes with the HTTP transport.')
 option('gettext', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
   description: 'Build translation files.')
+option('gitk', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
+  description: 'Build the Gitk graphical repository browser. Requires Tcl/Tk.')
+option('git_gui', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
+  description: 'Build the git-gui graphical user interface for Git. Requires Tcl/Tk.')
 option('gitweb', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
   description: 'Build Git web interface. Requires Perl.')
 option('iconv', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
diff --git a/subprojects/git-gui b/subprojects/git-gui
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..c6d917088b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/subprojects/git-gui
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../git-gui
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/subprojects/gitk b/subprojects/gitk
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..b66ad18ae5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/subprojects/gitk
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../gitk-git
\ No newline at end of file

---
base-commit: 67ad42147a7acc2af6074753ebd03d904476118f
change-id: 20250703-b4-pks-meson-tcl-tk-bb75616c8048