Re: Custom subcommand help handlers

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 22, 2021, 17:44 UTC
Message-ID: <211222.865yrgplu9.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2112221640340.347@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>

On Wed, Dec 22 2021, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 36 quoted lines

> Hi Ævar,
>
> On Tue, 21 Dec 2021, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Dec 20 2021, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>>
>> > On Sat, 18 Dec 2021, Sean Allred wrote:
>> >
>> >> I've got a custom subcommand I'm distributing in my company to integrate
>> >> with our bug-tracker. It's a pretty robust utility and has its own help
>> >> function, but running `git foo --help` doesn't pass --help to my git-foo
>> >> utility. [...]
>> >>
>> >> What's the best way to go about this?
>> >
>> > I think you might need to be a bit more careful than just looking whether
>> > the command in question is a built-in or not. It could be delivered as a
>> > script or executable inside `libexec/git-core`. So maybe check that,
>> > something like this:
>> >
>> > -- snip --
>> > [...]
>> > -- snap --
>> >
>> > Of course, this might break existing users' setups where they ship a Git
>> > command together with a manual page.
>> >
>> > A potential remedy against that would be, as you say, a config option.
>> > Maybe defaulting to the manual page if `help.format` is `man`, otherwise
>> > defaulting to passing `--help` to the command.
>>
>> What are the cases that require us to inexpect our --exec-path at
>> runtime, as opposed to having a list of commands we know we put there at
>> "install" time?
>
> It is a simple solution. Why even suggest a complex alternative, I wonder.

You're suggesting the more complex alternative.

We already have a way in that same file to dump both built-ins and other known commands:

	git --list-cmds=builtins
	git --list-cmds=main

And isn't your is_in_git_exec_path() basically a re-implementation of what we already get from:

	git --list-cmds=others

Hence my question. I.e. if you don't have git-send-email installed why would you take your is_in_git_exec_path()? I.e. start treating it as "others" would be treated. We know it's ours, it's just not installed at the moment.

But those aren't the same thing, so either you didn't know that we have this data already, or the difference is important for some reason you haven't explained.