Re: [PATCH v2] gitweb: map names/emails with mailmap

[Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>]

On Sun, Aug 9, 2020 at 11:12 PM Emma Brooks <me@pluvano.com> wrote:
> On 2020-08-09 20:49:59-0400, Eric Sunshine wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 9, 2020 at 7:06 PM Emma Brooks <me@pluvano.com> wrote:
> > > +mailmap::
> >
> > Is this setting global or per-repository? (I ask because documentation
> > for other options in this section document whether they can be set
> > per-repository.)
>
> Global. I'll add a note that it cannot be set per-project, or I could
> add support for setting it per-project if that's wanted.

If it's not much extra work, it might make sense to support
per-project, if for no other reason, to be consistent with other
nearby options.

> > Should there be any sort of support for functionality similar to the
> > "mailmap.file" and "mailmap.blob" configuration options in Git itself?
> > (Genuine question, not a demand for you to implement such support.)
>
> Yes, that would be useful and should probably be supported.

I don't insist upon it. It can always be added later if someone needs
it. I was asking about it now because it might have an affect on the
design or type of value which the 'mailmap' option you added above can
accept, and I was concerned about getting locked into a design without
taking these other possibilities into account. For instance, rather
than being a simple boolean, perhaps the 'mailmap' option you added
could be more expressive, eventually allowing support for an explicit
file or blob. This is another reason why I asked if 'mailmap' can be
per-project, since an explicit mailmap file, and especially a blob,
would belong to a particular project. It's just something to think
about. (Then again, I'm not a gitweb user, nor am I familiar with its
configuration, so take my observations with a grain of salt.)

> > > +       open my $fd, '-|', quote_command(
> > > +               git_cmd(), 'cat-file', 'blob', 'HEAD:.mailmap') . ' 2> /dev/null'
> > > +               or die_error(500, 'Failed to read mailmap');
> >
> > Am I reading this correctly that this will die if the project does not
> > have a .mailmap file? If so, that seems like harsh behavior since
> > there are many projects in the wild lacking a .mailmap file.
>
> No, this error message is misleading. The die_error is called if there
> is a problem executing git cat-file, but not if cat-file returns an
> error. I'll revise this message to be more accurate.

Okay, that makes sense.

> > > +       return \%mailmap if eof $fd;
> > > +       foreach (split '\n', <$fd>) {
> >
> > If the .mailmap has no content, then the 'foreach' loop won't be
> > entered, which means the early 'return' above it is unneeded, correct?
> > (Not necessarily asking for the early 'return' to be removed, but more
> > a case of checking that I'm understanding the logic.)
>
> The early return is intended to catch when there is no mailmap, so $fd
> does not get initialized. Without it, you would get an error when you
> try to split $fd's content:
>
>     Use of uninitialized value $fd in split at [the foreach]

Right. This follows from my misunderstanding what happened if .mailmap
was missing.