Re: [PATCH v3] sparse-checkout: improve OS ls compatibility

[Ed Maste <emaste@freebsd.org>]

On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 at 13:21, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> "This is similar to ls" is not all that important, especially if we
> then need to say how different from "ls" ours is.  The log message
> that describes why we needed to move away from "ls" is a good place
> to say what aspect of "ls" was unsuitable.

Ok, I'm also happy if it goes in with no comment; the reason I added
it is I could foresee someone coming along in a few years, thinking
this is just a strange local implementation of ls, and changing it.
But, perhaps we can assume that any such person would check the
history before doing so and the comment is not needed.

> If we _were_ to add an in-code comment, we may want to say something
> like
>
>         # Do not replace this with "cd "$1" && ls", as FreeBSD "ls"
>         # enables "-A" when run by root without being told, and ends
>         # up including ".git" etc. in its output.
>
> to warn future developers against improving and/or cleaning up.

Indeed, that is more direct, although it's not just FreeBSD ls; this
came from 4.2BSD and is probably common to most/all non-GNU ls
implementations. In particular, macOS behaves the same way. (Also, the
replacement would be even simpler, just "ls $1".)