# [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command 6 messages from 2005-12-30 to 2005-12-31. Participants: John Ellson, Linus Torvalds, H. Peter Anvin. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/2945 ## John Ellson, 2005-12-30 16:23 Subject: [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dp3mtp%24rfm%241%40sea.gmane.org ``` I think it is probably a bug that "git non_existent_command" returns its error message to stdout without an error, where "git-non_existent_command" behaves differently and does return an error. Older versions of git did not implement "git describe" and GIT-VERSION-GEN produces an empty version string if run on a system with such a git installed. The consequence is that "make rpm" fails. This patch fixes GIT-VERSION-GEN so that it works in the absence of a working "git describe" ---------------------------------------- diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN index 196402c..845b9dc 100755 --- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN +++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE -VN=$(git describe --abbrev=4 HEAD 2>/dev/null) || VN=v1.0.GIT +VN=$(git-describe --abbrev=4 HEAD 2>/dev/null) || VN=v1.0.GIT VN=$(expr "$VN" : v'\(.*\)') if test -r $GVF then ---------------------------------------- Signed-off-by: John Ellson ``` ## Linus Torvalds, 2005-12-30 18:49 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Pine.LNX.4.64.0512301046230.3249%40g5.osdl.org In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, 30 Dec 2005, John Ellson wrote: > > I think it is probably a bug that "git non_existent_command" > returns its error message to stdout without an error, where > "git-non_existent_command" behaves differently and does return an > error. > > Older versions of git did not implement "git describe" and > GIT-VERSION-GEN produces an empty version string if run on > a system with such a git installed. The consequence > is that "make rpm" fails. > > This patch fixes GIT-VERSION-GEN so that it works in the > absence of a working "git describe" Shouldn't you make "git.c" return an error too, so that "git-describe" and "git describe" both fail properly? I realize that you'd want to do your patch _too_ (in case somebody has an old version of "git" installed), but I just think it would be sensible to fix the problem that causes this in the first place.. Continuing to output to stdout rather than stderr is probably a good idea (so that it's easy to do "git help | less" or something), but yeah, I think an unrecognized command should at least return an error. Linus ``` ## John Ellson, 2005-12-30 19:12 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command Message-ID: <43B586B4.5030001@research.att.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/43B586B4.5030001%40research.att.com In-Reply-To: ``` Linus Torvalds wrote: > On Fri, 30 Dec 2005, John Ellson wrote: > >> I think it is probably a bug that "git non_existent_command" >> returns its error message to stdout without an error, where >> "git-non_existent_command" behaves differently and does return an >> error. >> >> Older versions of git did not implement "git describe" and >> GIT-VERSION-GEN produces an empty version string if run on >> a system with such a git installed. The consequence >> is that "make rpm" fails. >> >> This patch fixes GIT-VERSION-GEN so that it works in the >> absence of a working "git describe" >> > > Shouldn't you make "git.c" return an error too, so that "git-describe" and > "git describe" both fail properly? > > I realize that you'd want to do your patch _too_ (in case somebody has an > old version of "git" installed), but I just think it would be sensible to > fix the problem that causes this in the first place.. > > Continuing to output to stdout rather than stderr is probably a good idea > (so that it's easy to do "git help | less" or something), but yeah, I > think an unrecognized command should at least return an error. > > Linus > I checked and that bug has been fixed since the older version of git that was causing me problems. "git non_existent_command" now returns 1. However, the error message was also changed to goto stderr, which it sounds like you disagree with? Personally I don't have a problem with it, although a real "git-help" command might be a good idea too. John ``` ## John Ellson, 2005-12-30 19:31 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dp41ve%24v7r%241%40sea.gmane.org In-Reply-To: ``` John Ellson wrote: > I think it is probably a bug that "git non_existent_command" > returns its error message to stdout without an error, where > "git-non_existent_command" behaves differently and does return an > error. BTW. Its the old shell-script version of "git" that fails to return an error on non_existent_commands. The newer C version of "git" correctly returns an error code. The reason that this is a sufficiently serious problem to require a fix is that the broken version of "git" is in the git-core-0.99.9a-2.fc5.i386.rpm that is currently in Fedora Core Extras development. John ``` ## Linus Torvalds, 2005-12-30 19:55 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Pine.LNX.4.64.0512301153100.3249%40g5.osdl.org In-Reply-To: <43B586B4.5030001@research.att.com> ``` On Fri, 30 Dec 2005, John Ellson wrote: > > I checked and that bug has been fixed since the older version of git that > was causing me problems. "git non_existent_command" now returns 1. Ahh, good. > However, the error message was also changed to goto stderr, which it > sounds like you disagree with? Not that I can see: [torvalds@g5 ~]$ git --version git version 1.0.6-g58e3 [torvalds@g5 ~]$ git hjsdhjas > /dev/null [torvalds@g5 ~]$ echo $? 1 so yes, it returns a proper error, and it outputs the help message to stdout, not stderr. Which is fine, because it means that you can indeed do git help | less and it will do the right thing (apart from printing the line git: 'help' is not a git-command which is a bit sad). Linus ``` ## H. Peter Anvin, 2005-12-31 00:15 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Make GIT-VERSION-GEN tolerate missing git describe command Message-ID: <43B5CDA2.5050408@zytor.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/43B5CDA2.5050408%40zytor.com In-Reply-To: ``` John Ellson wrote: > John Ellson wrote: > >> I think it is probably a bug that "git non_existent_command" >> returns its error message to stdout without an error, where >> "git-non_existent_command" behaves differently and does return an >> error. > > > BTW. Its the old shell-script version of "git" that fails to return an > error on non_existent_commands. The newer C version of "git" > correctly returns an error code. > > The reason that this is a sufficiently serious problem to require a fix > is that the broken version of "git" is in the > git-core-0.99.9a-2.fc5.i386.rpm that is currently in Fedora Core Extras > development. > It has been fixed. What's broken is that Fedora Extras still contains 0.99.9a which is totally ancient. -hpa ```