Re: [RFC PATCH 3/3] setup: communicate why a directory is not a valid git directory

From: Kaartic Sivaraam <kaartic.sivaraam@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 25, 2026, 14:33 UTC
Message-ID: <b27162ed-0c62-4ef0-b125-4340517e0d50@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq7bkaz45e.fsf@gitster.g>

On 9/25/26 03:46, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 13 quoted lines

> Kaartic Sivaraam <kaartic.sivaraam@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> +		strbuf_addf(&die_msg, _("not a git repository: '%s'"), gitdirenv);
>> +		strbuf_addch(&die_msg, '\n');
>> +		strbuf_addf(&die_msg, _("reason: %s"), invalid_gitdir_reason.buf);
>> +		die("%s", die_msg.buf);
>> +
>> +		strbuf_release(&die_msg);
> 
> You just called die(); nobody will execute this strbuf_release() for
> you, and because die() is marked with NORETURN, smart enough compilers
> would scold you for introducing dead code.
>

Oops. It should indeed warn me. I did a quick check and seems gcc (which I was using) lost its ability to report this long ago[1]. Sad. Clang clearly reports this.

[1]: https://gcc.gnu.org/legacy-ml/gcc-help/2011-05/msg00360.html

Show 8 quoted lines

> Why are you lego-assembling localized message yourself, instead of
> doing something like ...
> 
> 	die(_("not a git repository: '%s'\nreason: %s"),
> 	    gitdirenv, invalid_gitdir_reason.buf);
> 
> ... which is what is usually done?
>

That was my attempt at trying to save translators some work of translating the "not a git repository" part. I was thinking this lego was not a problem as it was not so complex. If we just want to avoid legos totally, I'm cool with doing it the usual way.

-- 
Sivaraam