Re: [PATCH RFC v3 2/2] Move libgit.a sources into separate "lib/" directory

From: Taylor Blau <ttaylorr@openai.com>
Date: Jul 20, 2026, 23:40 UTC
Message-ID: <al6yCTDjBRn2HGq0@com-79390>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqqzkx9t95.fsf@gitster.g>

On Mon, Jul 20, 2026 at 03:43:50PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

> I do not think we want to do this in a single large change.  If we
> were to move everything to 'lib/' only to then need to further group
> them into subdirectories of 'lib/', it would subject us to multiple
> rounds of disruption.  I suspect it would be far less disruptive if
> we migrated one subsystem at a time, directly to a new directory
> immediately below the root level.

I agree.

Though it may seem *more* disruptive to do it piecemeal instead of all at once, I think it would be preferable to avoid having a single subsystem have to move multiple times.

That said, I am not sure that I completely understand the motivation behind such a change to begin with. The second patch in this series claims that:

 - "The Git project is not exactly the easiest project to get started in
   [...]", because in part:

 - "[..] finding your way around in our project's tree is not easy.
   Doing a directory listing in the top-level directory will present you
   with more than 550 files, which makes it extremely hard for a
   newcomer to figure out what files they are even supposed to look at."

I am not sure I understand how moving ~700 some odd files into "lib" makes the project easier to navigate. I understand the patch's latter point that:

 - "It is not obvious at all which files are part of "libgit.a" and
   which files are only linked into our final executables."

But don't see how this distinction will help newcomers who are likely not yet thinking about which files are part of libgit.a and which are not.

My other thought is that I worry that "lib" might itself be somewhat misleading, given that many of the files being moved are not especially amenable in the current form to being linked against as external libraries.

So, I guess my feeling is that I am not closed off to the idea that the benefits outweigh the risks/drawbacks here, but I currently do not see that they do.

Thanks, Taylor