Subject: Re: [PATCH] Allow building GIT in a different directory from the source directory

From: Andreas Ericsson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:28:03 +0100

Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Tue, 12 Dec 2006, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
> 
>> I still don't understand the problem with autoconf; there are already 
>> plenty of baroque shell scripts in GIT.  I hate writing m4 macros as 
>> well, but that's not a problem for GIT users (ie. people who compile 
>> GIT).
> 
> That, together with the complexity of GIT_EXEC_DIR and path mangling 
> problems, makes me take every opportunity to suggest we should build in 
> most if not all of Git into the "git wrapper".
> 
> Granted, without completion scripts, the "git-" convention was nice.
> 
> Granted, with bash, Perl and even Python, you can rapidly prototype your 
> thoughts (even if I often miss the power of C there).
> 

We could still allow that by simply not removing the "run this external 
program" code from the git wrapper even if we make all default commands 
built-ins. Pluggable git, just as it is today, and when something turns 
out to be useful, feature-complete and stable enough "someone" will 
hopefully hop in to make it a built-in.

> But in the end, I'd say it makes lots of sense to have everything in one 
> executable.
> 

Yup. Not least for portability issues. The lack of a native windows 
client has already made us lose at least one major "customer", and afaiu 
it was *only* the lack of a native windows client that caused this, so 
obviously it's a big issue for big cross-platform projects.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   [email-masked]
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se