Re: [PATCH RFC v3 2/2] Move libgit.a sources into separate "lib/" directory

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 09:33:29AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:
> 
> >> ... built-in commands in 'builtin', with subsystems like 'refs' and
> >> 'odb' in their own directories, and everything else at the root
> >> level, I would prefer to keep that organization until a substantial
> >> subsystem update wants to carve out a new location for itself, just
> >> as past updates to create 'builtin', 'refs', and 'odb' did.
> >> 
> >> Compared to those past moves, the proposed change looks more like
> >> churn for the sake of moving things around, without achieving any
> >> real organizational improvement.
> >> 
> >> I must say that I, too, remain skeptical.
> >
> > My main motivation isn't prettiness though, it's newcomers to the
> > project. Git is not an easy project to get started in, and the root
> > cause of that of course isn't our file layout but probably rather that
> > Git has been growing organically for 20 years. But the file layout
> > definitely doesn't help newcomers to find their way around in the
> > product.
> 
> What I gave as good examples were not motivated by prettiness,
> either.  Moving things around to lib/ as a whole ball of wax without
> further classification would mean readers, whether new or old, would
> not benefit from neatly classified set of files that gives readers a
> concise and easy to understand rules like "you can visit builtin to
> learn about individual command implementations".  To achieve a layout
> that makes it easier to find our way around, you'd need to move
> things again after moving everything into lib/.  Moving to lib/ by
> itself does not add much value, if any.  It certainly does not add
> any discoverability.

I think that a cleaned up root directory is by itself already adding a
lot of value because it makes the entry points into the Git codebase
more explicit. As I said elsewhere, the value is not in making the code
that is part of "lib/" itself more discoverable. The value is in making
everything else more discoverable.

Ultimately though it's a subjective change, so it's hard to argue about
that as I cannot present any hard facts.

Thanks!

Patrick