Re: [PATCH 5/8] Add a config option for remotes to specify a foreign vcs

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Aug 11, 2009, 23:53 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0908120128120.8306@pacific.mpi-cbg.de>
In-Reply-To: <20090811214849.GA3868@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Hi,

On Tue, 11 Aug 2009, Jeff King wrote:

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> On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 06:20:54PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> 
> > >        o   [user@]host.xz:/path/to/repo.git/
> > 
> > That is a valid concern.  I'd suggest to disallow @ and . in the protocol 
> > name (maybe even everything non-alnum).  For shortcuts that really read 
> > like "svn", I think it is not too much asked for to require adjusting the 
> > URL (by prefixing ssh:// and adjusting the path).
> > 
> > If there is really anybody who uses Git via ssh to access a server called 
> > "svn", we could just as well have a little fun with them, don't you agree?
> 
> It is not actually that unreasonable. I have remotes which point to:
> 
>   vcs:git/foo.git

That is still not "svn".

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> where "vcs" is a shorthand for vcs.gtisc.gatech.edu, defined in my 
> .ssh/config (it's a machine which hosts several different version 
> control systems). So I could see somebody having something like "svn" if 
> they were, e.g., hosting a git-to-svn conversion on their company's svn 
> server.

If _I_ were to judge whether to make it convenient for computer-savvy people like you who would have _no_ problem diagnosing the problem (_if_ they have the problem, having edited .ssh/config themselves!), who would curse briefly, and then go on fixing the problem, or in the alternative make it convenient for people who do not know their way around .ssh/config as well as you (and who happen to make up the _vast_ majority of Git users by now [*1*]), and who would really prefer to have an easy way to clone "foreign" repositories, I have _no_ problem deciding which way to go.

So I'm a bastard.  Big news.  But I'm a pragmatic one.

Ciao, Dscho

Footnote [*1*]: Maybe I was helping to increase the number of Git users who do not know .ssh/config with my work on Git for Windows, but that was not my original intention. Maybe I should start to feel better about it...