Re: [PATCH RFC v2 2/2] Move libgit.a sources into separate "lib/" directory

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 1, 2026, 14:45 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq1pdmrcp6.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <cbbb08fc-fd4d-45ef-927b-05ac44602ff1@gmail.com>

Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> writes:

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> As I said last time this came up, I don't really buy the discoverability 
> argument because there are just as many files to trawl through to find 
> what you're looking through and now there is an extra directory to 
> check. I think the solution to that is to recommend folks use "git grep" 
> or ctags etc. not moving code to a new directory.

Hear, hear. Also it would be great if we can trick some talented technical writer into writing the "map" of the source so that by reading this one or two pager, any new person with reasonable competence will know how things are partitioned into pieces and how these pieces fit together. I wonder how good LLMs are these days? ;-)

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> I do however think putting all the library code in a subdirectory makes 
> it easier to say things like "please try to avoid new uses of 
> 'the_repository' and prefer 'error()' over 'die()' in library code" 
> because all the library code is in the same directory. I think that is a 
> much stronger selling point.

Yes. "library code (things outside the subdirectories) should not use X" would work just fine, though.

> Another cost is remembering things have moved - the other day I spent 
> too long wondering why "git show origin/seen:wt-status.c" wasn't working 
> until I ran "git log origin/seen" and realized it had move to 
> lib/wt-status.c.

Yes, this has bit me multiple dozen times, as the tip of 'seen' is contaminated with this rename, already. It is a huge pain.