Re: fdl-1.3

[Eric Blake]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

According to Bruno Haible on 11/10/2008 8:30 PM:
> Eric Blake wrote:
>> I added a symlink fdl.texi
>> ...
>> Here's what I'm committing.
>> new file mode 120000
> 
> A symlink?! This can only cause problems:
>   - When 'git' is run on a Windows system (not Cygwin), AFAIK there are
>     no symlinks.

In which case, git treats the file as a single line text, whose contents
would correspond to the symlink, but the contents of the git tree make it
obvious (via the different object mode) that it is a link.

>   - When 'git' is run on Linux on a vfat file system, there are no symlinks.

Ditto.  git can already work around such deficient file systems when it
comes to versioning the file, and hopefully no one is crazy enough to
actually try developing git on such a file system.

>   - When you use 'tar' with option 'h' to copy the directory, the copy will
>     be different from the original: it will have the symlink replaced by its
>     target's contents.

Which is perfectly fine - the copy in gnulib is for reference, and whether
it is a symlink or a copy shouldn't matter.  It just made my life as
autoconf maintainer easier to be able to add a line to cfg.mk that does
'cp gnulib/doc/fdl.texi autoconf/doc/',
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=autoconf.git;a=commitdiff;h=5bf2204#patch2

>   - When you use 'tar' without option 'h', the copy can not be produced on a
>     system or file system that does not support symlinks.

Who plans on untar'ing gnulib directly onto such a system?  The random
user untars a package that already copied fdl.texi, not gnulib itself.

> 
> Please, can't you make fdl.texi a regular file? Either with contents
> 
>   @include fdl-1.3.texi
> 
> or as a copy of fdl-1.3.texi?

Only if anyone else argues that a symlink is not workable.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (Cygwin)
Comment: Public key at home.comcast.net/~ericblake/eblake.gpg
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEARECAAYFAkkZArEACgkQ84KuGfSFAYA0swCdG26sCJNU22L1T5izXZzmZ8rj
/HYAoK49CDqz36OU9HWz59OL+WsdQMlq
=kWci
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----