Re: [PATCH] t0000: check whether the shell supports the "local" keyword

[Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>]

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 4:18 AM, Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Add a test balloon to see if we get complaints from anybody who is
> using a shell that doesn't support the "local" keyword. If so, this
> test can be reverted. If not, we might want to consider using "local"
> in shell code throughout the git code base.

I would guess that the number of people who actually run the Git test
suite is microscopic compared to the number of people who use Git
itself. It is not clear, therefore, that lack of reports of failure of
the new test would imply that "local" can safely be used throughout
the Git code base. At best, it might indicate that "local" can be used
in the tests.

Or, am I missing something?

> Signed-off-by: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
> ---
> This has been discussed on the mailing list [1,2].
>
> Michael
>
> [1] https://public-inbox.org/git/CAPig+cRLB=dGD=+Af=yYL3M709LRpeUrtvcDLo9iBKYy2HAW-w@mail.gmail.com/
> [2] https://public-inbox.org/git/20160601163747.GA10721@sigill.intra.peff.net/
>
>  t/t0000-basic.sh | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 25 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/t/t0000-basic.sh b/t/t0000-basic.sh
> index 1aa5093f36..7fd87dd544 100755
> --- a/t/t0000-basic.sh
> +++ b/t/t0000-basic.sh
> @@ -20,6 +20,31 @@ modification *should* take notice and update the test vectors here.
>
>  . ./test-lib.sh
>
> +try_local_x () {
> +       local x="local" &&
> +       echo "$x"
> +}
> +
> +# This test is an experiment to check whether any Git users are using
> +# Shells that don't support the "local" keyword. "local" is not
> +# POSIX-standard, but it is very widely supported by POSIX-compliant
> +# shells, and if it doesn't cause problems for people, we would like
> +# to be able to use it in Git code.
> +#
> +# For now, this is the only test that requires "local". If your shell
> +# fails this test, you can ignore the failure, but please report the
> +# problem to the Git mailing list <git@vger.kernel.org>, as it might
> +# convince us to continue avoiding the use of "local".
> +test_expect_success 'verify that the running shell supports "local"' '
> +       x="notlocal" &&
> +       echo "local" >expected1 &&
> +       try_local_x >actual1 &&
> +       test_cmp expected1 actual1 &&
> +       echo "notlocal" >expected2 &&
> +       echo "$x" >actual2 &&
> +       test_cmp expected2 actual2
> +'
> +
>  ################################################################
>  # git init has been done in an empty repository.
>  # make sure it is empty.
> --
> 2.14.1