From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tait Subject: Re: fixing workdirs Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:37:14 -0700 Message-ID: <20100708183714.GR2480@ece.pdx.edu> References: <20100708110842.GC12789@madism.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Pierre Habouzit To: Git ML X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Jul 08 20:48:54 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OWw9V-0005R9-Li for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:48:54 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756793Ab0GHSss (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Jul 2010 14:48:48 -0400 Received: from rcpt.cat.pdx.edu ([131.252.208.107]:46489 "EHLO rcpt.cat.pdx.edu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756002Ab0GHSsr (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Jul 2010 14:48:47 -0400 X-Greylist: delayed 684 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:48:47 EDT Received: from nemo.ece.pdx.edu (root@nemo.ece.pdx.edu [131.252.209.162]) by rcpt.cat.pdx.edu (8.14.2/8.14.2/Debian-2build1) with ESMTP id o68IbFuB018950 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:37:15 -0700 Received: from nemo.ece.pdx.edu (tait@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nemo.ece.pdx.edu (8.13.6/8.13.1) with ESMTP id o68IbEq6001272; Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:37:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from tait@localhost) by nemo.ece.pdx.edu (8.13.6/8.12.6/Submit) id o68IbEMx001271; Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:37:14 -0700 (PDT) X-Authentication-Warning: nemo.ece.pdx.edu: tait set sender to git.git@t41t.com using -f Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20100708110842.GC12789@madism.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.19 (2009-01-05) X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (rcpt.cat.pdx.edu [131.252.208.107]); Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:37:15 -0700 (PDT) X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=6.0 tests=L_PHISH4 autolearn=no version=3.2.5 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on rcpt.cat.pdx.edu X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.95.2 at rcpt.cat.pdx.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Pierre Habouzit said (on 2010/07/08): > ... The workdir HEAD reflog is then a > symlink to the masters. #include On programs (like git) pretending to be cross-platform, symlinks should be avoided. They are to varying degrees, painful on non-*nix operating systems. Windows is an especially compatibility-breaking example, not only on the programming side, but also in relation to user interface, and compatibility with other programs. Programming-wise, documentation is sparse and would require lots of platform-specific work-arounds. The user-interface support is worse than terrible. And even if git does everything right, there's no guarantee a copy, backup/restore, antivirus program, etc. won't come along and corrupt the environment git so carefully created. Many of those other programs don't properly handle Windows reparse points. For those interested, http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=284 gives a reasonable-looking overview of the details on Windows.