Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] notes: support an external command to display notes

> On Wed, Jun 24 2026 at 13:19:26 +0530, Johannes Sixt wrote:
> > > One solution to this is to move the freshness policy out of git so that
> > > it is someone else's problem. We can have a realtime fetch or faster
> > > updation via external helper means. But unfortunately we lose the
> > > coherence in the display of information, and so the user would end up
> > > reinventing git log in his quest to have same workflow.
> > 
> > You are presenting one solution here. But a more obvious solution would
> > have been to make Git's notes implementation capable enough to keep up
> > with the volume of notes that are produced by your team.
> 
> Git storage is inherently based on refs, so that would require massive
> changes IMO. The actual fundamental problem here is that only the
> latest state is useful at any given point of time, and not the past
> history.
> 
> > Another solution would be to track the information outside of Git notes
> > entirely, similar to how pull requests, issues, reviews, and
> > conversations are tracked by Git hosters in databases outside of Git.
> 
> This is precisely what this allows for. The information is tracked
> outside of Git, and the notes path just shows it along with the commit.
> 
> A developer works on the code using Git. An external website doesn't
> allow the same level of coherence in display of information as a note.
> The commit is a fundamental unit of change. IMO it makes sense for Git
> to be able to show a note about it from a provided external medium.
> 
> > > Let's add support for notes.externalCommand, a protected-configuration
> > > command that git runs as a long-lived helper when displaying notes. git
> > > sends commit IDs to the helper and displays any returned text through
> > > the existing notes formatting path. This keeps presentation in git
> > > while letting the helper decide how fresh note text is obtained.
> > 
> > To my eyes, this looks like an overengineered solution that helps one
> > user of a niche feature of Git.
> 
> This can also allow for other uses too. For example, searching lore I
> just found out that a colleague in Oracle Linux (Vegard) was trying to
> solve a related problem in 2022:
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/git/20220802075401.2393-1-vegard.nossum@oracle.com/
> 
> I think it was for achieving something like this more generally:
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vegard/linux.git/commit/?id=339f83612f3a569b194680768b22bf113c26a29d
> 
> An external notes command can be a solution for it.
> 
> Thanks,
> Siddh