Re: [PATCH 0/2] Feature: New Variable git-p4.binary

[Luke Diamand <luke@diamand.org>]

On Thu, 14 Nov 2019 at 20:17, Ben Keene <seraphire@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 4:52 AM Luke Diamand <luke@diamand.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 14 Nov 2019 at 02:36, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > "Ben Keene via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:
> > >
> > > > Issue: Using git-p4.py on Windows does not resolve properly to the p4.exe
> > > > binary in all instances.
> > > >
> > > > Two new code features are added to resolve the p4 executable location:
> > > >
> > > >  1. A new variable, git-p4.binary, has been added that takes precedence over
> > > >     the default p4 executable name. If this git option is set and the
> > > >     path.exists() passes for this file it will be used as executable for the
> > > >     system.popen calls.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >  2. If the new variable git-p4.binary is not set, the program checks if the
> > > >     operating system is Windows. If it is, the executable is changed to
> > > >     'p4.exe'. All other operating systems
> > > >     (those that do not report 'Windows' in the platform.system() call)
> > > >     continue to use the current executable of 'p4'.
> > >
> > > I do not use Windows nor git-p4, but the above two changes make
> > > sense to me at the design level.  One thing that needs to be updated
> > > is the configuration variable, though.  It is more in line with the
> > > other parts of the system to name this "git-p4.program", because
> > > binary-ness does not matter much to you, as long as the named thing
> > > works correctly as "p4" program replacement.
> > >
> > > Seeing "gpg.program" is used in a similar way, it also is tempting
> > > to call it "p4.program", but no other parts of Git other than
> > > "git-p4" uses P4, and the "git-p4." prefix is to collect variables
> > > related to "git-p4" together, so calling it "p4.program" may not be
> > > a good idea---it would hurt discoverability.  "git-p4.p4program"
> > > may be OK, if we anticipate that git-p4 may need to use (and its
> > > users need to specify paths to) external programs other than "p4",
> > > but it probably is overkill.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> >
> > There's some trailing whitespace in 98bae, can we get that tidied up?
> >
> > Otherwise, modulo Junio's comments, it looks good.
> >
> > I agree that "git-p4.binary" might be harder to discover ("Oh, I
> > assumed that enabled binary mode!"). p4program should be fine.
>
> I have updated the Pull Request to change the variable name from
> 'binary' to 'p4program'.  I have also updated the PR description.

I couldn't figure out how to download this. I tried p4-binary-1, but
it gave me the old one. Maybe I was just using it wrong?

Could you update the commit message to say why we needed to do this;
if we have to dig through history in the future to figure out what's
going on, it will be a lot easier if the explanation is in the commit
message, rather than in an email thread. The branch description on
gitgitgadget won't be around either.

>
> Here's the new commit message:
>
> Issue: Using git-p4.py on Windows does not resolve properly to the
> p4.exe binary in all instances.
>
> Changes since v1:
> Commit: (dc6817e) 2019-11-14
>
> Renamed the variable "git-p4.binary" to "git-p4.p4program"
>
> v1:
>
> Two new code features are added to resolve the p4 executable location:
>
> A new variable, git-p4.binary, has been added that takes precedence
> over the default
> p4 executable name. If this git option is set and the path.exists()
> passes for this file
> it will be used as executable for the system.popen calls.
>
> If the new variable git-p4.binary is not set, the program checks if
> the operating system
> is Windows. If it is, the executable is changed to 'p4.exe'. All other
> operating systems
> (those that do not report 'Windows' in the platform.system() call)
> continue to use the
> current executable of 'p4'.