Re: Yet another base64 patch

From: David A. Wheeler <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>
Date: Apr 17, 2005, 03:53 UTC
Message-ID: <4261DDBC.3050706@dwheeler.com>
In-Reply-To: <20050414205831.01039ee8.pj@engr.sgi.com>

Paul Jackson wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Earlier, hpa wrote:
> 
>>The base64 version has 2^12 subdirectories instead of 2^8 (I just used 2 
>>characters as the hash key just like the hex version.)
> 
> Later, hpa wrote:
> 
>>Ultimately the question is: do we care about old (broken) filesystems?
> 
> 
> I'd imagine we care a little - just not alot.

Some people (e.g., me) would really like for "git" to be more forgiving of nasty filesystems, so that git can be used very widely. I.E., be forgiving about case insensitivity, poor performance or problems with a large # of files in a directory, etc. You're already working to make sure git handles filenames with spaces & i18n filenames, a common failing of many other SCM systems.

If "git" is used for Linux kernel development & nothing else, it's still a success. But it'd be even better from my point of view if "git" was a useful tool for MANY other projects. I think there are advantages, even if you only plan to use git for the kernel, to making "git" easier to use for other projects. By making git less sensitive to the filesystem, you'll attract more (non-kernel-dev) users, some of whom will become new git developers who add cool new functionality.

As noted in my SCM survey (http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/scm.html), I think SCM Windows support is really important to a lot of OSS projects. Many OSS projects, even if they start Unix/Linux only, spin off a Windows port, and it's painful if their SCM can't run on Windows then. Problems running on NFS filesystems have caused problems with GNU Arch users (there are workarounds, but now you need to learn about workarounds instead of things "just working"). If nothing else, look at the history of other SCM projects: all too many have undergone radical and painful surgeries so that they can be more portable to various filesystems.

It's a trade-off, I know.

--- David A. Wheeler