Re: [PATCH 0/7] [RFC] advice: refuse to output if stderr not TTY

From: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 22, 2024, 13:15 UTC
Message-ID: <e90949ed-8065-4498-9ddb-3d5c6afa7b35@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1776.git.1724238152.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

On 8/21/24 7:02 AM, Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> Advice is supposed to be for humans, not machines. Why do we output it when
> stderr is not a terminal? Let's stop doing that.
> 
> I'm labeling this as an RFC because I believe there is some risk with this
> change.

Thanks, all, for the feedback about the risk of making such a change. I agree that we should not pursue this direction.

The main issues are:

  1. Some tools create a wrapper around Git and may want to supply the
     advice to the user by parsing stderr.

  2. The advice system has been on for a long time and we cannot know
     where other dependencies could be for it.

I'll abandon this RFC, but plan on the following action items:

  * Document GIT_ADVICE in Documentation/git.exe.

  * Modify Documentation/config/advice.txt to mention GIT_ADVICE and
    recommend that automated tools calling Git commands set it to zero.

  * If we have a place to recommend best practices for automation
    executing Git commands, then I would add GIT_ADVICE=0 as a
    recommendation there. I couldn't find one myself. Do we have one?

Thanks! -Stolee