Re: [PATCH] t0000: check whether the shell supports the "local" keyword

From: Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 26, 2017, 08:40 UTC
Message-ID: <CA+P7+xoCKTaG9kV2T9YUHvagHVzD6v7A=neLzF3Qj1q8Fi0u-w@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAPig+cTv4YW0m0PLH+UucEHjgQkbCsOunPrkKVDrPQXNkd=GAg@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 1:28 AM, Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

> On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 4:18 AM, Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> Add a test balloon to see if we get complaints from anybody who is
>> using a shell that doesn't support the "local" keyword. If so, this
>> test can be reverted. If not, we might want to consider using "local"
>> in shell code throughout the git code base.
>
> I would guess that the number of people who actually run the Git test
> suite is microscopic compared to the number of people who use Git
> itself. It is not clear, therefore, that lack of reports of failure of
> the new test would imply that "local" can safely be used throughout
> the Git code base. At best, it might indicate that "local" can be used
> in the tests.
>
> Or, am I missing something?
>

I don't think you're missing anything. I think the idea here is: "do any users who actively run the test suite care if we start using local". I don't think the goal is to allow use of local in non-test suite code. At least, that's not how I interpreted it.

Thus it's fine to be only as part of a test and see if anyone complains, since the only people affected would be those which actually run the test suite...

Changing our requirement for regular shell scripts we ship seems a lot trickier to gauge.

Thanks, Jake