Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] t: run tests from a normalized working directory

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2025 11:22:35 -0700

Mark Mentovai <[email-masked]> writes:

> Torsten Bögershausen wrote:
>> On Mon, Jun 02, 2025 at 02:32:35PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>>> ...
>>> Yes.  You need to specify what you are canonicalizing to, and once
>>> you are going to do so, there is no need for that heavy verb, i.e.
>>> you do not need to say "canonicalize it to realpath"---you say "turn
>>> it into realpath" and you convey what you want to say just fine.
>>>
>> Re-reading the help for realpath() and pwd, would this makes sense:
>> t: run tests from an absolute pathname
> ...
> Making a path absolute is a different transformation than what is at
> issue here. You may have been misled by the fact that pwd -P and
> realpath both make paths absolute in addition to performing symbolic
> link resolution. The latter is what's operative here.
>
> As I've explained, the paths in question are already absolute in git's
> test suite today, even without the proposed change. It's not correct
> to summarize the change as making paths absolute, when that's neither
> changing nor the crux of the problem.

Absolutely ;-)

"normalized" does invite "normalize to what standard" question, but
as you mentioned in an earlier post, "realpath" is a bit dense for
those who don't read realpath(3) manual pages, and "symlink-resolved
file path" is quite mouthful even though it might be understandable.

Let me merge it down with the commit title as-is and then cook it in
'next' during the -rc period.

Thanks.