Re: [PATCH] Make ident dynamic, not just a hardcoded value of "$Id".

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Aug 23, 2021, 18:10 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa6l8qbgc.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1074.git.git.1629736918861.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"Maksym Sobolyev via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> From: Maksym Sobolyev <sobomax@sippysoft.com>
>
> This allows ident to be something like $FreeBSD$ so it provides matching
> functionality for repos migrated from CVS / SVN.
>
> This works by allowing ident to have a parameter, i.e.:
>
> * ident=MyCustomId
>
> In .gitattributes.

I would have expected that, just like cvs uses its configuration mechanism for LocalKeyword, this would belong to the .git/config file.

The attribute mechanism is inherently for stuff that you would want to specify per-path, so the "do we do keyword expansion for this file (yes/no)?" is a good match to be an attribute, and that question is what the original 'ident' attribute asks.

I do not think "what keyword do we want to expand as if it were $Id$?" is a question we want to be giving different answers per path, and it does not smell like a good match to be an attribute.

By allowing a potentially separate values for

    *.txt ident=FreeBSD
    *.cc  ident=OpenBSD

this gives long rope to create a mess to the users.

I also think that the ident expansion is overrated, and have a feeling that we should discourage its use, not encourage it, but that is a separate story.

Thanks.