Re: [PATCH 2/3] ci: add build checking for side-effects in assert() calls

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 16, 2025, 06:38 UTC
Message-ID: <CABPp-BF1LgdafW+PHmttuhHL1OOHPTsGpOTVuG_A0SSH5cbfbg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqa59nh66g.fsf@gitster.g>

On Fri, Mar 14, 2025 at 10:29 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

>
> Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> writes:
>
> >> Licensing, mostly, as clever things we see are not necessarily home
> >> grown.  I know the patch came with DCO sign-off, but it does not
> >> hurt to double check.
> >
> > These two lines:
> >
> >> +extern int not_supposed_to_survive;
> >> +#define assert(expr) ((void)(not_supposed_to_survive || (expr)))
> >
> > , which serve as the core trick, I had used elsewhere before.
>
> It may be arguable that it is too small to be copyrightable and
> there is no other way to express the idea behind that check, but
> in any case ...

That's what I had been assuming, but then you, brian, and Taylor all pointed out how clever it was making me think otherwise.

Show 5 quoted lines

> > Anyone got a clever alternative?
>
> ... as I cannot unsee your patch, I cannot be the one who comes up
> with a clever alternative, if we are worried about licensing with
> what you posted X-<.

Turns out we don't need an alternative. I contacted the author, who responded and placed the two-liner into the public domain with no warranty of any kind. I'll send a re-roll with an updated commit message.