Re: [Fundamental problem with relative system paths] [PATCH 2/2] run-command (Windows): Run dashless "git <cmd>"

[Steffen Prohaska <prohaska@zib.de>]

On Jul 28, 2008, at 10:37 PM, Johannes Sixt wrote:

> Zitat von Steffen Prohaska <prohaska@zib.de>:
>
>> This might solve a fundamental problem we have with the
>> computation of system directories based on relative paths
>> in combination with the new gitexecpath 'libexec/git-core'.
>> The problem is that the program 'git' is hardlinked to
>> directories with different depth.  It is either used as
>> 'bin/git' (1 directory) or as 'libexec/git-core/git-*'
>> (2 directories).  Thus, using the same relative path
>> in system_path() yields different results when starting from the
>> two locations.  I recognized the problem because /etc/gitconfig
>> is no longer be read.
>>
>> The patch below might fix the problem by always calling 'bin/git'
>> for builtin commands.  The computation in system_path() would
>> always start from 'bin' and thus yields predictable results.  I
>> am not sure however if it fully solves the problem because other
>> code paths might run the dashed forms directly.
>
> This paragraph should go into the commit message.

I'll send an updated patch including a commit message defending
the change more offensively.


>> I think the only way to verify correctness would be to stop
>> installing the dashed forms for builtins.  If they were not
>> installed they could not be called.  The only entry point for all
>> builtins would be 'bin/git'.  I don't think we want to stop
>> installing the dashed forms right away.
>>
>> So what shall we do?
>
> Your patches make a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, I am sure that they do not solve the problem fully, even
if we removed the dashed forms completely.  I'll send a second patch  
that
modifies the Makefile to stop installing the BUILT_INS.  It might be
useful for debugging.

	Steffen