Hi Ævar,

On Sun, 4 Jul 2021, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 23 2021, Dennis Ameling via GitGitGadget wrote:
>
> > diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
> > index 0f7516c9ef..3b40c677ab 100644
> > --- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
> > +++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
> > @@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ jobs:
> >        shell: bash
> >        run: |
> >          cmake `pwd`/contrib/buildsystems/ -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=`pwd`/compat/vcbuild/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows \
> > -        -DMSGFMT_EXE=C:/git-sdk-64-minimal/mingw64/bin/msgfmt.exe -DPERL_TESTS=OFF -DPYTHON_TESTS=OFF -DCURL_NO_CURL_CMAKE=ON
> > +        -DNO_GETTEXT=YesPlease -DPERL_TESTS=OFF -DPYTHON_TESTS=OFF -DCURL_NO_CURL_CMAKE=ON
> >      - name: MSBuild
> >        run: msbuild git.sln -property:Configuration=Release -property:Platform=x64 -maxCpuCount:4 -property:PlatformToolset=v142
> >      - name: bundle artifact tar
>
> To a first approximation isn't the point of CI to test a diversity of
> setups?

No, the point of CI is to find breakages.

And in this instance, a careful analysis will reveal that the artifacts
generated via `msgfmt` are not even used, let alone tested.

Even more careful analysis will reveal that Git for Windows does not ship
with translations. Therefore, it would be pointless to test the
translations here. Doubly so because Git for Windows is not even built
using MSVC, and this `vs-build` job is really about verifying that we can
build with that compiler, and _iff_ we used `msgfmt` here, it would not be
Visual Studio's (because it doesn't have any `msgfmt`) but the regular one
from Git for Windows' SDK. Triply so because the regular one from Git for
Windows' SDK _is actually used_ in the `windows-build` job, therefore we
_really_ do not need to repeat the same exercise with the same gettext
version and the same git/git revision in the same GitHub workflow run.

In short: there is no diversity to be gained here. (Actually, that is not
quite true: by using gentler language on a first-time contributor instead
of immediately going into full critic mode without any fanfare, we could
have invited more diversity onto this list. Maybe you could pay more
attention to that in the future?)

Back to the issue you pointed out: could this be described in the commit
message? Sure. But I think there is no much worth in it, the surrounding
code and parent commit makes it clear that the `.mo` files aren't used,
and that it would therefore be a waste of electrons to generate them in
each and every `vs-build` run.

Ciao,
Johannes