Re: Re: [PATCH bc/connect-plink] t5601-clone: remove broken and pointless check for plink.exe
- From
Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
- Date
- Aug 13, 2015, 07:30 UTC
- Message-ID
- <43f88e9611755e20715bf9f38795f276@www.dscho.org>
- In-Reply-To
- <55CB9110.4060005@kdbg.org>
Hi Johannes,
On 2015-08-12 20:31, Johannes Sixt wrote:
Show 19 quoted lines
> Am 12.08.2015 um 13:58 schrieb Erik Faye-Lund: >> On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Johannes Schindelin >> <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> wrote: >>> FWIW Git for Windows has this patch (that I wanted to contribute >>> in due time, what with being busy with all those tickets) to solve the >>> problem mentioned in your patch in a different way: >>> >>> https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/commit/2fff4b54a0d4e5c5e2e4638c9b0739d3c1ff1e45 >> >> Yuck. On Windows, it's the extension of a file that dictates what kind >> of file it is (and if it's executable or not), not the contents. If we >> get a shell script written with the ".exe"-prefix, it's considered as >> an invalid executable by the system. We should consider it the same >> way, otherwise we're on the path to user-experience schizophrenia. >> >> I'm not sure I consider this commit a step in the right direction. > > I, too, think that it is a wrong decision to pessimize git for the > sake of a single test case.
Oh, you make it sound as if you believe that I had indeed weakened Git *just* for a single test case.
That is quite a strong assumption, and could not be further from the truth, though, I have to point out. It is important to keep in mind that we (actually, IIRC it was you) taught Git to recognize shell scripts when executing external programs *because Windows does not do that for us*. So yes, we are deviating from the standard Windows way of things, and we do that quite intentionally so.
Now, let's look at the test case for a moment and let's try to understand the technique it uses (that breaks the test case currently). It puts a script in place of an `.exe`, with the intention to execute the script instead of the original executable.
This technique is an age-old technique on Unix, and it just works. There are a range of valid reasons, from debugging to slightly modifying the function of a particular `.exe` (possibly renaming the original `.exe` and calling it from the script) in the easiest way: by scripting on top of it.
If we want to allow such a thing -- allowing users to use scripts to modify the behavior of executables -- then we *have* to allow `.exe` suffixes for scripts, because that happens to be the suffix of executables on Windows.
I guess you would have had an easier time to understand my thinking if I had replaced the sentence
So the assumption that the `.exe` extension implies that the file is *not* a shell script is now wrong.
by
So this is a strong indicator that it was wrong to assume that `.exe` extensions imply that the file is *not* a shell script.
Further, I even looked at the performance impact, but that is at least well documented in the commit message.
I also have to point out that the alternative "solution" presented by your patch -- to disable the test case -- is no solution at all: the very platform that is most likely to have plink users is Windows. And to *exclude* that platform from running that unit test is questionable at best.
Ciao, Johannes
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