Re: [PATCH] Makefile: mark git-maintenance as a builtin

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

> We normally get the list of builtin commands by expanding BUILTIN_OBJS.
> But for commands which are embedded inside another's source file (e.g.,
> cmd_show() in builtin/log.c), the Makefile needs to be told explicitly
> about them.
>
> Since cmd_maintenance() is inside buitin/gc.c, it should be listed
> explicitly in the BUILT_INS list in the Makefile. Not doing so isn't
> _too_ tragic, as it simply means we will not make a git-maintenance
> symlink in libexec/git-core. Since we encourage people to use the "git
> foo" form, even in scripts which have put libexec into their PATH,
> nobody seems to have noticed.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
> ---
> I don't really care that much. I just happened to notice there is a
> git-maintenance pattern in .gitignore which will not ever trigger.
>
> I could actually see an argument that this is not worth doing for new
> commands. The dashed forms of the other commands have worked for a long
> time, so losing them would be a regression. But since git-maintenance
> would never have worked, presumably everybody who cares is using the
> recommended "git maintenance" form already.

I do not care too deeply, but being inconsistent means users have to
remember which ones can still be used in the dashed form when they
use the PATH=$(git --exec-path):$PATH escape hatch, and which ones
cannot.  It strongly discourages folks from writing new scripts with
dashed form "git" commands, which might be a good thing, but it goes
against our commitment to keep dashed form working, so...

> So I'm happy with that direction, too, but in that case we should
> probably remove the .gitignore entry. :)
>
>  Makefile | 1 +
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
> diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
> index d3a531d3c6..1e507b9de0 100644
> --- a/Makefile
> +++ b/Makefile
> @@ -769,6 +769,7 @@ BUILT_INS += git-cherry-pick$X
>  BUILT_INS += git-format-patch$X
>  BUILT_INS += git-fsck-objects$X
>  BUILT_INS += git-init$X
> +BUILT_INS += git-maintenance$X
>  BUILT_INS += git-merge-subtree$X
>  BUILT_INS += git-restore$X
>  BUILT_INS += git-show$X