Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] t/t1517: mark tests that fail with GIT_TEST_INSTALLED

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:35:54 -0700

Adam Dinwoodie <[email-masked]> writes:

> The changes added by 39fc408562 (t/t1517: automate `git subcmd -h` tests
> outside a repository, 2025-08-08) to automatically loop over all "main"
> Git commands will, when run against an installed build using
> GIT_TEST_INSTALLED rather than the build in the build directory, include
> some extra git-gui commands that are installed by `make install`, or
> credential helpers that might be installed manually from the contrib
> directories.  These fail the test, so record them as such.
>
> Signed-off-by: Adam Dinwoodie <[email-masked]>
> ---
>
> This re-roll adds a few more commands to those marked as known failures,
> notably credential helpers I see installed in various builds for the
> Nixpkgs packaging of Git.
>
>  t/t1517-outside-repo.sh | 5 ++++-
>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

I'd appreciate these efforts, but I am not sure if this is a losing
battle.  Your ~/libexec/git-core/ directory, when GIT_TEST_INSTALLED
is in effect, likely has old commands that are retired, commands
that are added by third-parties (so that their users can say "git
frotz" and run their "frotz" software), and/or commands from the
future that the running t1517 has not seen yet (while bisecting and
running t1517 from an older commit, say).  For example, I have these
differences...

	archimport.perl
	        citool
	cvsexportcommit.perl
	cvsimport.perl
	cvsserver.perl
	difftool--helper.sh
	filter-branch.sh
	        gui
	        gui--askpass
	instaweb.sh
	last-modified
	merge-octopus.sh
	merge-one-file.sh
	merge-resolve.sh
	mergetool.sh
	p4.py
	quiltimport.sh
	request-pull.sh
	send-email.perl
	submodule.sh
	svn.perl
	web--browse.sh

... in what t1517 $(git --list-cmds=main) sees between 'master' in
normal test mode and with GIT_TEST_INSTALLED set to ~/git/jch/bin
(i.e. the version I run for my everyday use).  "last-modified" is an
example of a new-ish command that the t1517 test being run is not
yet aware of but included in GIT_TEST_INSTALLED.

I am wondering if we are better off skipping this test, or at least
limiting to some known subset (e.g. "git --list-cmds=builtins") to
skip the files on disk when GIT_TEST_INSTALLED is in effect, instead
of "git --list-cmds=main" that is quite broad)?

In any case, this is a strict improvement over the previous one, so
I'll replace and queue this for now, but we may want to rethink the
approach this test uses.  Even without GIT_TEST_INSTALLED, the fake
GIT_EXEC_PATH we use during test has somewhat different from the
real thing, I suspect.  

Thanks.

> diff --git a/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh b/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh
> index 1c69d52c76..c824c1a25c 100755
> --- a/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh
> +++ b/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh
> @@ -111,8 +111,11 @@ for cmd in $(git --list-cmds=main)
>  do
>  	cmd=${cmd%.*} # strip .sh, .perl, etc.
>  	case "$cmd" in
> -	archimport | cvsexportcommit | cvsimport | cvsserver | daemon | \
> +	archimport | citool | credential-netrc | credential-libsecret | \
> +	credential-osxkeychain | cvsexportcommit | cvsimport | cvsserver | \
> +	daemon | \
>  	difftool--helper | filter-branch | fsck-objects | get-tar-commit-id | \
> +	gui | gui--askpass | \
>  	http-backend | http-fetch | http-push | init-db | \
>  	merge-octopus | merge-one-file | merge-resolve | mergetool | \
>  	mktag | p4 | p4.py | pickaxe | remote-ftp | remote-ftps | \