Re: [kernel.org users] [RFD] On deprecating "git-foo" for builtins

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>]

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008, David Woodhouse wrote:
> 
> Nice emotive response, especially the subtle but unsubstantiated 'silent
> majority in favour' bit -- but you forgot the part where you were
> supposed to actually point out a tangible benefit which is achieved by
> breaking compatibility like this.

Umm. The 'git-xyzzy' thing has been one of the #1 complaints since pretty 
much day#1. The number of people complaining about it going away has 
literally been _much_ smaller than the people who complained about it 
being there.

Also, like it or not, it's done. So the argument about "compatibility" is 
TOTAL AND UTTER BULLSHIT. There is no compatibility, because we already 
released a major version without them.

So live with it, and just add the 

	PATH="$PATH:$(git --exec-path)"

as a "compatibility layer" to your own setup already. There is no 
downside, and I think there _is_ a big upside, and no, it's not just about 
"/usr/bin" being smaller.

In case you wonder, the upside is:

 - new people don't even learn the mistakes

 - the people who _did_ complain are happier

 - this model allows a per-user-preference model even on the same machine 
   (ie even on something like master.kernel.org, everybody can choose 
   _individually_ whether they want to see 'git-xyzzy' or not!)

and there really is zero downside apart from the _trivial_ downside of you 
just having to add a single PATH thing to your .bashrc or something.

			Linus