Re: [PATCH v4 2/4] maintenance: include 'cron' details in docs

[Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 4:13 PM Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget
<gitgitgadget@gmail.com> wrote:
> Advanced and expert users may want to know how 'git maintenance start'
> schedules background maintenance in order to customize their own
> schedules beyond what the maintenance.* config values allow. Start a new
> set of sections in git-maintenance.txt that describe how 'cron' is used
> to run these tasks.
>
> This is particularly valuable for users who want to inspect what Git is
> doing or for users who want to customize the schedule further. Having a
> baseline can provide a way forward for users who have never worked with
> cron schedules.
>
> Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
> ---
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
> @@ -218,6 +218,60 @@ Further, the `git gc` command should not be combined with
> +The comments are used as a region to mark the schedule as written by Git.
> +Any modifications within this region will be completely deleted by
> +`git maintenance stop` or overwritten by `git maintenance start`.
> +
> +The `<path>` string is loaded to specifically use the location for the
> +`git` executable used in the `git maintenance start` command. This allows
> +for multiple versions to be compatible. However, if the same user runs
> +`git maintenance start` with multiple Git executables, then only the
> +latest executable will be used.

It looks like this section in v4 got accidentally reverted to the
wording from v2, whereas v3 had been changed to:

    The `crontab` entry specifies the full path of the `git`
    executable to ensure that the executed `git` command is the same
    one with which `git maintenance start` was issued independent of
    `PATH`. If the same user runs `git maintenance start` with
    multiple Git executables, then only the latest executable is used.

> +These commands use `git for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo` to run
> +`git maintenance run --schedule=<frequency>` on each repository listed in
> +the multi-valued `maintenance.repo` config option. These are typically
> +loaded from the user-specific global config located at `~/.gitconfig`.
> +The `git maintenance` process then determines which maintenance tasks
> +are configured to run on each repository with each `<frequency>` using
> +the `maintenance.<task>.schedule` config options. These values are loaded
> +from the global or repository config values.

Same problem here. This wording is from v2, whereas v3 had been
changed to say generically "user-specific global config" rather than
mentioning `~/.gitconfig` explicitly.

> +If the config values are insufficient to achieve your desired background
> +maintenance schedule, then you can create your own schedule. If you run
> +`crontab -e`, then an editor will load with your user-specific `cron`
> +schedule. In that editor, you can add your own schedule lines. You could
> +start by adapting the default schedule listed earlier, or you could read
> +https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/crontab.5.html[the `crontab` documentation]
> +for advanced scheduling techniques. Please do use the full path and
> +`--exec-path` techniques from the default schedule to ensure you are
> +executing the correct binaries in your schedule.

And here too. v3 had updated this to say only "crontab(5)" rather than
providing an explicit URL.