Git public repository naming convention (was: Re: users.txt patch)

[Benoit SIGOURE]

[CC: Git-ML]

On Oct 24, 2007, at 9:51 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> Benoit SIGOURE <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > On Oct 24, 2007, at 12:28 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> > > > Index: gnulib.html
> > > > ===================================================================
> > > > RCS file: /web/gnulib/gnulib/gnulib.html,v
> > > > retrieving revision 1.13
> > > > retrieving revision 1.16
> > > > diff -p -u -r1.13 -r1.16
> > > > --- gnulib.html 22 Oct 2007 21:41:43 -0000      1.13
> > > > +++ gnulib.html 23 Oct 2007 22:22:18 -0000      1.16
> > > > @@ -57,14 +57,20 @@ You can also view the <a href="MODULES.h
> > > >  anonymous <a href='http://git.or.cz/'>Git</a>, using the following
> > > >  shell command:</p>
> > > >
> > > > -<pre><samp>git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/gnulib.git
> > > > +<pre><samp>git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/gnulib
> > > >  </samp></pre>
> >
> > Is there any reason why this has changed?  I learned (the hard way)
> > that for bare public repositories, it's better to stick to what turns
> > out to be more than a naming convention of `project.git'.  I don't
>
> What are the consequences of not doing that?

You can't git-clone the remote repo because it tries to fetch the  
wrong URL (if the url isn't of the form `foo.git' it will try to  
fetch `foo/.git' which will fail).

> > know if these issues are only related to dumb protocols (HTTP*) or if
> > they also affect the Git protocol.  I can't find the relevant thread
>
> Hmm... maybe it's http-specific?
> Things seem to work fine with the git protocol.

Yeah, that's what I wondered.

> > on the Git ML but the thing is that it seems that several tools rely
> > on the fact that a repository name of the form `foo.git' implies that
> > it's a bare repository (and thus it doesn't need to look for a   
> > nested
> > .git directory).
>
> It has always worked -- on that server, at least.
> I use that form because I prefer the shorter URL:
>
>     git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/gnulib
>
> In general, if you control the server repo,
> you can simply add a symlink in project.git:
>
>     .git -> ..
>
> I suppose that avoids any such problems, but I haven't
> done that on any of the savannah repositories.

Yeah well that's more of a workaround than anything else.

My guess: it works with the Git protocol, probably because git-http- 
fetch works differently than whatever tool does the fetch for the  
native Git protocol.  OTOH, isn't it better to have a consistent  
naming?  If you look at the gitweb of gnulib [ http:// 
git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git ], it says "URL git:// 
git.sv.gnu.org/gnulib.git".  Oddly enough, whether you add the `.git'  
or not doesn't seem to change anything.

The documentation (Documentation/urls.txt) only shows examples of the  
form `git://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/'.  So do Documentation/core- 
tutorial.txt, Documentation/git-clone.txt and Documentation/ 
repository-layout.txt (among others).

Maybe the Git gurus will be able to shed some light on this issue.

Cheers,

--
Benoit Sigoure aka Tsuna
EPITA Research and Development Laboratory

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