Re: [PATCH] git: add --no-optional-locks option

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 08:25:50PM +0200, Johannes Sixt wrote:

> > +`GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS`::
> > +	If set to `0`, Git will avoid performing any operations which
> > +	require taking a lock and which are not required to complete the
> > +	requested operation. For example, this will prevent `git status`
> > +	from refreshing the index as a side effect. This is useful for
> > +	processes running in the background which do not want to cause
> > +	lock contention with other operations on the repository.
> > +	Defaults to `1`.
> 
> I don't think we should pass this environment variable to remote
> repositories. It should be listed in local_repo_env[] in environment.c.

I'm not sure I agree. This is really about the context in which the
command is executing, not anything about the particular repository
you're operating on.

For fetch/push operations that touch a remote, I doubt it would matter
either way (and anyway, those often cross network boundaries that don't
propagate environment variables anyway).

But imagine that "git status" learns to recurse into submodules and run
"git status" inside them. Surely we would want the submodule repos to
also avoid taking any unnecessary locks?

-Peff