Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] ident: stop assuming that `gw_gecos` is writable

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Thu, Mar 06, 2025 at 10:26:18AM +0000, Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> Now, why does this not trigger in CI? The answer is as simple as it is
> puzzling: The `win+Meson` job completely side-steps Git for Windows'
> development environment, opting instead to use the GCC that is on the
> `PATH` in GitHub-hosted `windows-latest` runners. That GCC is pinned to
> v12.2.0 and targets the UCRT (unlikely to change any time soon, see
> https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/win25/20250303.1/images/windows/toolsets/toolset-2022.json#L132-L141).
> That is in stark contrast to Git for Windows, which uses GCC v14.2.0 and
> targets MSVCRT. Git for Windows' `Makefile`-based build also obviously
> uses different compiler flags, otherwise this compile error would have
> had plenty of opportunity in almost 14 years to surface.

Oh, interesting. I didn't even know that the Windows runners had GCC in
their PATH, and thus I didn't expect it to use that compiler at all. On
GitLab for example we can see that it uses the MSVC compiler as I did
expect [1]:

    Activating VS 17.10.2
    C compiler for the host machine: cl (msvc 19.40.33811 "Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.40.33811 for x64")
    C linker for the host machine: link link 14.40.33811.0

But you're right, on GitHub that's not the case:

    C compiler for the host machine: gcc (gcc 12.2.0 "gcc (x86_64-posix-seh-rev2, Built by MinGW-W64 project) 12.2.0")
    C linker for the host machine: gcc ld.bfd 2.39

We can easily fix that by passing the `--vsenv` flag to Meson. I'll send
a patch soonish.

Patrick

[1]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/git/-/jobs/9324989037#L95
[2]: https://github.com/git/git/actions/runs/13686408338/job/38270746786#step:5:15