Re: [musl] Re: Regression: git no longer works with musl libc's regex impl

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Oct 5, 2016, 10:41 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.20.1610051231390.35196@virtualbox>
In-Reply-To: <20161005090625.683fdbbfac8164125dee6469@gmail.com>

Hi James,

On Wed, 5 Oct 2016, James B wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> On Tue, 4 Oct 2016 18:08:33 +0200 (CEST)
> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> > No, it is not. You quote POSIX, but the matter of the fact is that we
> > use a subset of POSIX in order to be able to keep things running on
> > Windows.
> > 
> > And quite honestly, there are lots of reasons to keep things running
> > on Windows, and even to favor Windows support over musl support. Over
> > four million reasons: the Git for Windows users.
> 
> Wow, I don't know that Windows is a git's first-tier platform now,

It is. Git for Windows is maintained by me, and I make as certain as I can that it works fine. And yes, we have download numbers to support my claim. The latest release is less than 24h old, but I can point you to Git for Windows 2.8.1 whose 32-bit installer was downloaded 397,273 times, and whose 64-bit installer was downloaded 3,780,079 times.

> and Linux/POSIX second.

This is not at all what I said, so please be careful of what you accuse me.

What I said is that we never exploited the full POSIX standard, but that we made certain to use a subset of POSIX in Git which would be relatively easy to emulate using Windows' API.

> Are we talking about the same git that was originally written in Linus
> Torvalds, and is used to manage Linux kernel?

It was originally written by (not in) Linus Torvalds, and yes, the Linux kernel is one of its many users.

Git is not used only for the Linux kernel, though, and I am certain that Linus agrees that it should not cater only to the Linux folks. Git is used very widely in OSS as well as in the industry. So we, the Git developers, kind of have an obligation to make things work in a much broader perspective than you suggested.

> Are you by any chance employed by Redmond, directly or indirectly?

I am not exactly employed by Redmond, but by Microsoft (this is what you meant, I guess).

I maintained Git for Windows in my spare time, next to a very demanding position in science, for eight years. In 2015, I joined Microsoft and part of my role is to maintain Git for Windows, allowing me to do a much better job at it.

Of course, I do not only improve Git's Windows support, but contribute other patches, too. You might also appreciate the fact that some of my colleagues started contributing patches to Git that benefit all Git users.

> Sorry - can't help it.

I do not know why you are sorry, and I do not believe that you have to be.

Ciao, Johannes