Re: [PATCH v2 1/8] INSTALL: don't mention the "curl" executable at all

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Sep 10, 2021, 14:53 UTC
Message-ID: <YTtxcBdF2VQdWp5C@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <patch-v2-1.8-ac11cf8cfd1-20210910T105523Z-avarab@gmail.com>

On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 01:04:26PM +0200, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> In 1d53f90ed97 (The "curl" executable is no longer required,
> 2008-06-15) the wording for requiring curl(1) was changed to the
> current "you might also want...".
> 
> Mentioning the "curl" executable at all is just confusing, someone
> building git might want to use it to debug things, but they might also
> just use wget(1) or some other http client. The "curl" executable has
> the advantage that you might be able to e.g. reproduce a bug in git's
> usage of libcurl with it, but anyone going to those extents is
> unlikely to be aided by this note in INSTALL.

I think that's reasonable. Keeping the INSTALL document short and clear is much more important than preemptively giving debugging hints of questionable value.

Show 18 quoted lines

> diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
> index 66389ce0591..5c6ecf03c27 100644
> --- a/INSTALL
> +++ b/INSTALL
> @@ -139,11 +139,11 @@ Issues of note:
>  	  (PPC_SHA1).
>  
>  	- "libcurl" library is used by git-http-fetch, git-fetch, and, if
> -	  the curl version >= 7.34.0, for git-imap-send.  You might also
> -	  want the "curl" executable for debugging purposes. If you do not
> -	  use http:// or https:// repositories, and do not want to put
> -	  patches into an IMAP mailbox, you do not have to have them
> -	  (use NO_CURL).
> +	  the curl version >= 7.34.0, for git-imap-send.
> +
> +	  If you do not use http:// or https:// repositories, and do
> +	  not want to put patches into an IMAP mailbox, you do not
> +	  have to have them (use NO_CURL).

I was confused by "them" here, which you kept in the post-image. In the original I thought it mean "libcurl and curl". And now that you are just saying "libcurl", it ought to be "it".

But perhaps it means "git-http-fetch, git-fetch, etc". In which case it's still correct.

But maybe it would be simpler to say:

  If you do not use ..., you do not need libcurl (use NO_CURL to build
  without it).

Sort of orthogonal, but maybe worth touching while we're here: that list of commands is kind of outdated. Nobody even knows what git-http-fetch is these days, and most people would not use it (it is only for dumb fetching). And certainly git-push can use http.

So maybe something like:

  "libcurl" library is used for fetching and pushing repositories over
  http:// or https://, as well as by git-imap-send if the curl version
  is >= 7.34.0.

-Peff