Re: [RFC_PATCHv4 4/7] submodule init: redirect stdout to stderr

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 22, 2016, 16:14 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqd1qmjxrl.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAHGBnuMs4D0LeMvdcS0yzKoQgmE+UTb+QFfOkSy7T20PbH86UQ@mail.gmail.com>

Sebastian Schuberth <sschuberth@gmail.com> writes:

> Just wondering, what's Git's policy on this? This message is neither
> an error nor a warning, but just purely informational. As such it
> semantically does not belong to stderr, or?

Some people believe that a clean execution should not give anything to stderr (Tcl is one example, IIRC), but I think the core part of Git takes the opposite stance (probably unix tradition?). Anything that is not the primary output of the program should go to stdout.

We may not have been very strict in code reviews to enfore it, and especially on the fringes of the system it may be easy to find violators, though.