Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC 0/2] Move libgit.a sources into separate "lib/" directory

From: Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:41:27 +0200

On Sun, Apr 19, 2026 at 03:11:54PM +0100, Phillip Wood wrote:
> Hi Patrick
> 
> On 16/04/2026 14:24, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > this small patch series follows up on a discussion we had two years ago
> > during the Git Contributor's Summit in Berlin.
> > 
> > I'm fully aware that this will likely result in some discussion, which
> > is why I have labelled this as RFC. I'd be fine with a result of "let's
> > not do it" if we cannot agree on this step, but I think that the current
> > layout hurts discoverability quite a bit. Not only for newcomers, but
> > I'm also struggling with it quite frequently.
> 
> I think it makes sense to have all the sources for libgit.a in their own
> directory as it is easier to say things like "please try to avoid new uses
> of 'the_repository' and prefer 'error()' over 'die()' in library code" if
> all the library code is in the same directory. I'm not really convinced it
> helps with discovery though as there are just as many files and now there
> are more subdirectories to trawl through to find what you're looking for. I
> think the anwser to that problem is "use 'git grep' or 'ctags' etc."

Agreed, it doesn't help with discoverability in "lib/" itself, as
there's still going to be a bunch of files in there. My main intent here
is to help with discoverability in the top-level directory, which is the
main entry point for everyone.

Patrick