Re: [PATCH 1/1] do not add common-main to lib

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 09:52:07AM +0200, Christian Hesse wrote:

> From: Christian Hesse <mail@eworm.de>
> 
> Commit 08aade70 (mingw: declare main()'s argv as const) changed
> declaration of main function. This breaks linking external projects
> (e.g. cgit) to libgit.a with:
> 
> error: Multiple definition of `main'

I'd expect the culprit is actually 3f2e229 (add an extra level of
indirection to main(), 2016-07-01).

> So do not add common-main to lib and let projects have their own
> main function.

That is certainly an option, but I think it means that those projects
are potentially buggy in the same way that some git commands were prior
to the common-main series. Namely, the common main() may do some
run-time setup that parts of libgit.a assume has been done.

I would not be surprised if cgit crashes on Windows, for instance, for
the reasons detailed in 650c449 (common-main: call
git_extract_argv0_path(), 2016-07-01). I would also not be surprised if
nobody actually builds cgit on Windows. :)

The "right" way to do it (according to the way libgit.a views the world)
is for cgit's main to become cmd_main(), and let libgit.a do its
run-time startup before getting there.

-Peff