threads / discuss / 65109

Editing GSoC Project Ideas

Subject: Editing GSoC Project Ideas

## tl;dr

4 messages between Mar 1, 2026 and Mar 4, 2026.

replies: 3people: 3as markdown or json

Phillip Wood· Mar 1, 2026, 14:26 UTC · lore

I'd be very grateful if someone with write access could please update the description of "Refactoring in order to reduce Git’s global state" [1] to stop recommending moving settings from `environment.c` into `struct repository_settings`. That struct was originally added to hold config settings that were already lazily parsed. We've had a number of submissions that move eagerly parsed config settings into that struct where an invalid config setting causes git to start dying in unexpected places when the lazy parsing fails.

The current wording of the suggested microproject does not mention any of the subtleties involved which sets students up to fail. A better suggestion would be for them to look at what Bello Caleb Olamide has been doing in their Outreach project [2].

I haven't been following Stolee's work [3] on "git conifg list --type" closely but I think it introduces some functions to parse config settings gently. Those functions might enable us to parse some config settings lazy where the functions using the lazily parsed settings are already set up to return a error. Doing that would require careful analysis and should not be a blanket recommendation.

Thanks

Phillip

[1] https://git.github.io/SoC-2026-Ideas/ [2] https://lore.kernel.org/48821a3848bef25c13038be8377ad73e7c17a924.1771258573.git.belkid98@gmail.com [3] https://lore.kernel.org/pull.2044.v3.git.1771849615.gitgitgadget@gmail.com

Christian Couder· Mar 1, 2026, 22:18 UTC · re: Phillip Wood · lore

Re: Editing GSoC Project Ideas

Hi Phillip,

On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 3:26 PM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

>
> I'd be very grateful if someone with write access could please update
> the description of "Refactoring in order to reduce Git’s global state"
> [1] to stop recommending moving settings from `environment.c` into
> `struct repository_settings`. That struct was originally added to hold
> config settings that were already lazily parsed. We've had a number of
> submissions that move eagerly parsed config settings into that struct
> where an invalid config setting causes git to start dying in unexpected
> places when the lazy parsing fails.

Yes, we should definitely update the description. Thanks for telling us about this.

> The current wording of the suggested microproject does not mention any
> of the subtleties involved which sets students up to fail. A better
> suggestion would be for them to look at what Bello Caleb Olamide has
> been doing in their Outreach project [2].

Yeah, I agree. We should suggest that.

Show 6 quoted lines

> I haven't been following Stolee's work [3] on "git conifg list --type"
> closely but I think it introduces some functions to parse config
> settings gently. Those functions might enable us to parse some config
> settings lazy where the functions using the lazily parsed settings are
> already set up to return a error. Doing that would require careful
> analysis and should not be a blanket recommendation.

I haven't followed Stolee's work either, but I will take a look. Thanks for the pointer.

In the meantime, if you have concrete suggestions for change you can submit one or more PRs to the https://github.com/git/git.github.io/ repo.

Thanks again anyway!

Kaartic Sivaraam· Mar 2, 2026, 18:03 UTC · re: Christian Couder · lore

Re: Editing GSoC Project Ideas

+Cc Stolee

Hi Phillip,

On 02/03/26 03:48, Christian Couder wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

> 
> On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 3:26 PM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'd be very grateful if someone with write access could please update
>> the description of "Refactoring in order to reduce Git’s global state"
>> [1] to stop recommending moving settings from `environment.c` into
>> `struct repository_settings`. That struct was originally added to hold
>> config settings that were already lazily parsed. We've had a number of
>> submissions that move eagerly parsed config settings into that struct
>> where an invalid config setting causes git to start dying in unexpected
>> places when the lazy parsing fails.
> 
> Yes, we should definitely update the description. Thanks for telling
> us about this.
>

Indeed. Thank you for the suggestion. We've tried to tweak the description accordingly. Kindly check and let us know if it still needs any tweaks:

   https://git.github.io/SoC-2026-Ideas/

Show 10 quoted lines

>> I haven't been following Stolee's work [3] on "git conifg list --type"
>> closely but I think it introduces some functions to parse config
>> settings gently. Those functions might enable us to parse some config
>> settings lazy where the functions using the lazily parsed settings are
>> already set up to return a error. Doing that would require careful
>> analysis and should not be a blanket recommendation.
> 
> I haven't followed Stolee's work either, but I will take a look.
> Thanks for the pointer.
>

I've not yet mentioned stolee's work in the tweak as it is a work in progress. I'll leave it for a future enhancement in case it is really worth mentioning the same.

> In the meantime, if you have concrete suggestions for change you can
> submit one or more PRs to the https://github.com/git/git.github.io/
> repo.
>

Just to add to this, any patches via mailing-list are also welcome if that's preferred :-)

-- Sivaraam

Phillip Wood· Mar 4, 2026, 15:56 UTC · re: Kaartic Sivaraam · lore

Re: Editing GSoC Project Ideas

Hi Kaartic

On 02/03/2026 18:03, Kaartic Sivaraam wrote:

Show 27 quoted lines

> +Cc Stolee
> 
> Hi Phillip,
> 
> On 02/03/26 03:48, Christian Couder wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 3:26 PM Phillip Wood 
>> <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I'd be very grateful if someone with write access could please update
>>> the description of "Refactoring in order to reduce Git’s global state"
>>> [1] to stop recommending moving settings from `environment.c` into
>>> `struct repository_settings`. That struct was originally added to hold
>>> config settings that were already lazily parsed. We've had a number of
>>> submissions that move eagerly parsed config settings into that struct
>>> where an invalid config setting causes git to start dying in unexpected
>>> places when the lazy parsing fails.
>>
>> Yes, we should definitely update the description. Thanks for telling
>> us about this.
>>
> 
> Indeed. Thank you for the suggestion. We've tried to tweak the 
> description accordingly. Kindly check and let us know if it still needs 
> any tweaks:
> 
>    https://git.github.io/SoC-2026-Ideas/

Thanks for updating that, it is certainly much clearer.

Show 14 quoted lines

>>> I haven't been following Stolee's work [3] on "git conifg list --type"
>>> closely but I think it introduces some functions to parse config
>>> settings gently. Those functions might enable us to parse some config
>>> settings lazy where the functions using the lazily parsed settings are
>>> already set up to return a error. Doing that would require careful
>>> analysis and should not be a blanket recommendation.
>>
>> I haven't followed Stolee's work either, but I will take a look.
>> Thanks for the pointer.
>>
> 
> I've not yet mentioned stolee's work in the tweak as it is a work in 
> progress. I'll leave it for a future enhancement in case it is really 
> worth mentioning the same.

That sounds sensible as none of us have actually thought through if it is useful yet.

Show 7 quoted lines

>> In the meantime, if you have concrete suggestions for change you can
>> submit one or more PRs to the https://github.com/git/git.github.io/
>> repo.
>>
> 
> Just to add to this, any patches via mailing-list are also welcome if 
> that's preferred :-)

Thanks I'll bear that in mind

Phillip