Re: [PATCH v2 0/7] tests: don't depend on "git init" using the template

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 6, 2022, 19:08 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa6ap7gpw.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <220604.86tu91w8un.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

>  * Since the original submission we've fixed the bug I found in the
>    sparse-checkout code where it had a hard reliance on our default
>    templates, which "init" and "clone" allow you to customize.

I actually would not call that a bug. At least, it is not an interesting "bug".

If your custom template lacks .git/info directory, some things may not be created correctly, and we could work it around by "mkdir -p".

But if your template creates a file there, we cannot get you unstuck without removing it before "mkdir -p", but we probably do not want to lose information that we do not even understand.

If your customization of your template breaks your repository in certain ways, you can keep both halves. I do not think we should really cater to such "customize to break" use case.

>    This series doesn't get us there, i.e. the default is still to
>    provide them, but with these changes it'll be trivial to flip that
>    switch in the follow-up series.

So, I do not buy that goal in the first place. Why not stop at saying "don't do stupid things to your templates to break your repository" and move on? Don't we have bigger fish to fry?

Thanks.