Re: [PATCH 1/2] t2016: require the PERL prereq only when necessary

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Dec 2, 2021, 14:57 UTC
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2112021555020.63@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqlf14ynco.fsf@gitster.g>

Hi Junio,

On Wed, 1 Dec 2021, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 23 quoted lines

> "Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
> writes:
>
> > From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> >
> > The scripted version of the interactive mode of `git add` still requires
> > Perl, but the built-in version does not. Let's only require the PERL
> > prereq if testing the scripted version.
> >
> > This addresses a long-standing NEEDSWORK added in 35166b1fb54 (t2016:
> > add a NEEDSWORK about the PERL prerequisite, 2020-10-07).
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> > ---
> >  t/t2016-checkout-patch.sh | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
> >  1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)
>
> Good.  I suspect there may not be too many developers who lack PERL
> prerequisite around here, so it is not like the built-in version was
> not sufficiently tested in developers' environment without this
> patch, but it is nice to see us move in this direction.  Of course,
> when we remove the non-builtin version, we'd further be able to lose
> these prerequisites.

It is probably true that few developers miss the Perl prerequisite, in particular given that you cannot even run Git's tests without having a working Perl.

However, we have seen time and time again that developers do not really run the test suite. For some, it takes way too long time (for some, 10 minutes is too long, but I remember that Jeff Hostetler reported a 5h running time, and let's not forget about Cygwin and NonStop) and others simply won't bother. So my focus lies more with the CI/PR builds. And there, Windows specifically runs with NO_PERL. And you guessed it, to save time.

Ciao, Dscho