Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/3] meson: wire up gitk and git-gui

From: Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:25:28 +0200

On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 08:49:35AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]> writes:
> Having said that, I somehow feel that ...
> 
> >  {git-gui => subprojects/git-gui}/.gitattributes       |   0
> > ...
> >  {gitk-git => subprojects/gitk}/.gitignore             |   0
> 
> ... a move like this is bending the source to match the limitation
> of the tool, making the people who use (write, read, and build from)
> the source to pay for the price, which is backwards.  The tool, be
> it Meson or Make or CMake, should be serving the project, not the
> other way around.  In our current build system, we don't have to
> have borrowed code (from gitk, git-gui, sha1dc, or xdiff) inside a
> specific subdirectory.
> 
> But I may change my mind while reading the real patches, not the
> diffstat.

I'm not much of a fan of these changes either, and agree that this is a
limitation of the tool. I think it isn't _too_ bad, but I would've
preferred to not require this step.

If this is proving to be a blocker we can also change upstream to not be
a separate project. That'd have the downside that it cannot be used
standalone, but the upside that we can just put these directories
wherever we want and then include them via `subdir()`.

I think taking the pain once though and renaming is preferred so that
both gitk and git-gui can also be used with Meson standalone.

Patrick