Re: [PATCH 4/6] Makefile: make INSTALL_SYMLINKS affect the build directory

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 29, 2021, 22:31 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqo8f1h9ra.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <patch-4.7-1089ca3d184-20210329T162327Z-avarab@gmail.com>

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

Show 7 quoted lines

> Change the INSTALL_SYMLINKS flag to also affect whether a built-in
> like e.g. git-fetch is a symlink or not in git's build directory.
>
> This doesn't matter for anything other than as an aid to developers
> who might be confused about their build not matching the installation,
> and who'd like to be reminded that e.g. "git-fetch" is a built-in by
> "ls" coloring appropriately it as a symlink.

I am not with the cause and hence not very interested in this "feature".

When there are multiple possible reasons why something is made into a symbolic link, the symlink-ness in the build directory cannot fundamentally mirror the symlink-ness in the installation, no? "git" and "git-fetch" may be in the same directory in the build, but their installation directories are different, so they may be hardlinked in the former but they may be turned into symlinks in the latter.