Re: [PATCH v3 2/2] tests(mingw): avoid very slow `mingw_test_cmp`

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 18, 2022, 23:15 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqv8nbkg77.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <Y3B36HjDJhIY5jNz@nand.local>

Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> writes:

> One thing that the commit message doesn't allude to (that is covered in
> the earlier discussion) is why it is important to pass
> `--ignore-cr-at-eol`. I think that is worth mentioning here.

Isn't it because Git on the platform is expected to use CRLF in certain places, unlike on other platforms where LF is used, but the platform port hasn't adjusted tests to match that expectation? And vice versa, where Git is expected to produce LF terminated text everywhere but the expected output is not "ported" to force LF termination and instead produces CRLF terminated text on platforms whose native line ending is CRLF?

Use of "ignore-cr-at-eol" may allow such tests that are not ported correctly to prepare expected output with a "wrong" line ending and still pass, and I do think it may be an expedite way to make tests appear to pass.

But I worry that it may not be a good thing for the health of the Windows port in the longer term.

When Git is expected to produce platform-native line endings, if a test is not adjusted to expect platform-native output and instead uses the ignore-cr-at-eol workaround, a future breakage that makes Git to produce LF terminated lines everywhere would not be caught, would it?