Re: [RFC PATCH 2/2] INSTALL: Describe a few knobs from the Makefile

[Brian Gernhardt <brian@gernhardtsoftware.com>]

On Sep 8, 2009, at 4:26 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> [rewrite suggestions snipped]

I'll re-roll this and the other INSTALL patch as per your suggested re- 
wordings.  I tried to add the minimum needed instead of changing  
things, but many of your suggestions make sense.  And since I'm in  
here anyway, might as well change them.

> Brian Gernhardt <brian@gernhardtsoftware.com> writes:
>> +	- "openssl".  Unless you specify otherwise (with NO_OPENSSL),
>> +	  you'll get the SHA1 library from here.
>
> It is not very clear what will be affected by disabling this.
>
> - SHA-1 is not used from OpenSSL, as stated;
> - imap-send won't be able to talk over SSL;
>
> Do we still able to walk https:// URLs?  If your cURL library is  
> linked
> with gnutls I think we can, but I never tried the combination.

Glancing at http*.[ch], it looks like we depend on curl's ability to  
speak https instead of using OpenSSL ourselves.

>> +	- "perl" is used for several scripts that are useful, but not
>> +	  required for git (e.g. "git add -i" and "git difftool").  If you
>> +	  don't need the *.perl scripts or the library contained in perl/,
>> +	  then use NO_PERL.
>
> I do not think moving "Perl" this low in the requirement level is  
> such a
> good idea, at least for now.  I'd suggest movign it back immediately  
> after
> POSIX-compliant shell, and would say something like this:
>
> 	- "Perl" is needed to use some of the features (e.g. preparing a
>          partial commit using "git add -i/-p", interacting with svn
>          repositories with "git svn").  If you can live without these,
>          say NO_PERL.
>
> Maybe they are Ruby, github, and general acceptance by many open  
> source
> projects these days, but it used to be that the initial entry points  
> to
> git were "git cvsimport" and "git svn" for a surprisingly large  
> number of
> people.

I didn't move it this low so much as not move it when I moved the  
POSIX shell requirement that we can't live without.  Although I use  
git-svn on a regular basis, I don't think of it as core, but you're  
right that it's one of the main tools for many users.  Will move.

~~ Brian