Git public repository naming convention (was: Re: users.txt patch)

From: Benoit SIGOURE <tsuna@lrde.epita.fr>
Date: Oct 24, 2007, 08:41 UTC
Message-ID: <FD3A6F4E-1570-4AF0-ADDC-5680B4E83C7D@lrde.epita.fr>
In-Reply-To: <87y7dtt0gk.fsf@rho.meyering.net>

[CC: Git-ML]

On Oct 24, 2007, at 9:51 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:

Show 23 quoted lines

> Benoit SIGOURE <tsuna@lrde.epita.fr> wrote:
>>> On Oct 24, 2007, at 12:28 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
>>>> Index: gnulib.html
>>>> ===================================================================
>>>> RCS file: /web/gnulib/gnulib/gnulib.html,v
>>>> retrieving revision 1.13
>>>> retrieving revision 1.16
>>>> diff -p -u -r1.13 -r1.16
>>>> --- gnulib.html	22 Oct 2007 21:41:43 -0000	1.13
>>>> +++ gnulib.html	23 Oct 2007 22:22:18 -0000	1.16
>>>> @@ -57,14 +57,20 @@ You can also view the <a href="MODULES.h
>>>>  anonymous <a href='http://git.or.cz/'>Git</a>, using the following
>>>>  shell command:</p>
>>>>
>>>> -<pre><samp>git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/gnulib.git
>>>> +<pre><samp>git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/gnulib
>>>>  </samp></pre>
>>
>> Is there any reason why this has changed?  I learned (the hard way)
>> that for bare public repositories, it's better to stick to what turns
>> out to be more than a naming convention of `project.git'.  I don't
>
> What are the consequences of not doing that?

You can't git-clone the remote repo because it tries to fetch the wrong URL (if the url isn't of the form `foo.git' it will try to fetch `foo/.git' which will fail).

Show 5 quoted lines

>> know if these issues are only related to dumb protocols (HTTP*) or if
>> they also affect the Git protocol.  I can't find the relevant thread
>
> Hmm... maybe it's http-specific?
> Things seem to work fine with the git protocol.

Yeah, that's what I wondered.

Show 18 quoted lines

>> on the Git ML but the thing is that it seems that several tools rely
>> on the fact that a repository name of the form `foo.git' implies that
>> it's a bare repository (and thus it doesn't need to look for a   
>> nested
>> .git directory).
>
> It has always worked -- on that server, at least.
> I use that form because I prefer the shorter URL:
>
>     git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/gnulib
>
> In general, if you control the server repo,
> you can simply add a symlink in project.git:
>
>     .git -> ..
>
> I suppose that avoids any such problems, but I haven't
> done that on any of the savannah repositories.

Yeah well that's more of a workaround than anything else.

My guess: it works with the Git protocol, probably because git-http- fetch works differently than whatever tool does the fetch for the native Git protocol. OTOH, isn't it better to have a consistent naming? If you look at the gitweb of gnulib [ http:// git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git ], it says "URL git:// git.sv.gnu.org/gnulib.git". Oddly enough, whether you add the `.git' or not doesn't seem to change anything.

The documentation (Documentation/urls.txt) only shows examples of the form `git://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/'. So do Documentation/core- tutorial.txt, Documentation/git-clone.txt and Documentation/ repository-layout.txt (among others).

Maybe the Git gurus will be able to shed some light on this issue.

Cheers,

-- 
Benoit Sigoure aka Tsuna
EPITA Research and Development Laboratory