RE: [PATCH v2 1/2] Teach git version --build-options about libcurl

[<rsbecker@nexbridge.com>]

On Monday, June 24, 2024 1:09 PM, Dragan Simic wrote:
>On 2024-06-24 16:33, Randall Becker wrote:
>> On Monday, June 24, 2024 10:13 AM, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>>> I am not sure that this is the most helpful information Git can
>>> provide:
>>> It reports the version against which Git was _compiled_, whereas the
>>> version it is _running against_ might be quite different.
>>>
>>> Wouldn't calling `curl_version()` make more sense here?
>>
>> I think the more important information is the build used. My reasoning
>> is that one can call run curl --version to see the current curl
>> install. However, different versions of curl have potential API
>> changes - same argument with OpenSSL. What initiated this for me (the
>> use case) started with a customer who incorrectly installed a git
>> build for OpenSSL 3.2 (and its libcurl friend). Git would then get a
>> compatibility issue when attempting to use either library. The
>> customer did not know (!) they had the git for OpenSSL 3.2 version and
>> I had no way to determine which one they had without seeing their path
>> - hard in an email support situation. Having git version
>> --build-options report what was used for the build *at a compatibility
>> level* would have easily shown that the available library (after
>> running openssl version or curl --version) reported different values.
>> Otherwise, we are back to guessing what they installed. The goal is to
>> compare what git expects with what git has available. The above series
>> makes this comparative information available.
>
>How about announcing both versions of the library if they differ, and only
one
>version if they're the same?  We're building this to serve as a way for
debugging
>various issues, having that information available could only be helpful.

I don't have a huge problem with that except it will significantly decrease
performance. We do not currently have to load libcurl/openssl to obtain the
build version (it is the --build-options flag), so adding additional load on
this command is not really what the series is about. Doing this run-time
check might be something someone else may want to take on separately, but
from a support use-case standpoint, it should be covered as is. Doing a
comparison is a separate use case.
--Randall