Any comment about upcoming Git Rev News edition 118

[chriscool]

A currently mostly empty draft is there:

https://github.com/git/git.github.io/blob/master/rev_news/drafts/edition-118.md

Feel free to comment in this issue, suggest topics, suggest persons to interview, or use the edit button (that looks like a pen) to edit and create a pull request with the changes you would like.

Let's try to publish this edition around the end of December 2024!

Thanks!

cc @jnareb @mjaix @sivaraam @gitster @stepnem

[chriscool]

Two Outreachy interns have been selected and should start working on their internship on December 9th. They have sent emails to the mailing list:

• https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAPSxiM_V1X7HtAAX+dJLH7c-ScVCnLxvazgJL=BGeC+kuEAHWQ@mail.gmail.com/
• https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAGedMtc9aKKemVZCYnzPH9rgNfMHfvukwLW8KMof1ZD+gj5MRw@mail.gmail.com/

[chriscool]

@jnareb maybe we could add a link to this LWN article about adding Rust to Git?

[jnareb]

@jnareb maybe we could add a link to this LWN article about adding Rust to Git?

Yes, I agree that would be a good idea (perhaps with reference to Edition 82?).

[chriscool]

@jnareb maybe we could add a link to this short one about upcoming Git 2.48 too?

[jnareb]

@jnareb maybe we could add a link to this short one about upcoming Git 2.48 too?

That's a good idea. Thanks @chriscool for the suggestion.

By the way, do you have any reference to discussion about choosing "Meson to be the primary build tool for Git in the future"?

[chriscool]

@jnareb I think most of the discussion about Meson happened in that thread:

https://lore.kernel.org/git/cover.1727881164.git.ps@pks.im/

Do you mean that I should cover this in an article?

[jnareb]

@jnareb I think most of the discussion about Meson happened in that thread:

https://lore.kernel.org/git/cover.1727881164.git.ps@pks.im/

Thanks, though that thread looks like quite far in the process, being v8 of "Modernize the build system" series...

I have just now remembered that the idea of Git switching to a modern build system was discussed on Git Contributor's Summit 2024: https://lore.kernel.org/git/Zu2E3vIcTzywWOx3@nand.local/

• Patrick: three different build system; should get rid of at least one of them
  • Should delete autoconf because it's not really maintained
  • Think about a proper build system
  • Obvious choice: cmake
    [...]
• Patrick: [Makefiles are] Non-standard
  • Meson is nicer than cmake as an alternative

I think I was one of people proposing autoconf as an addition to configuring Git via Makefile variables very early in the life of Git as a project - it made it much easier to create RPM spec file when compilation follows traditional 'configure && make && make install' steps.

But the Linux ecosystem have much changed since then.

For example Meson is 8 years younger (2013) than Git (2005). CMake is older than Git (2000), but not much.

I guess Build2 is too new for the consideration...

Do you mean that I should cover this in an article?

If you don't have a better idea for a topic, and have time for some research - it would be IMVHO interesting topic.

[jnareb]

I see that the following promise from Git Contributor's Summit 2024 (https://lore.kernel.org/git/Zu2E3vIcTzywWOx3@nand.local/)

• Jonathan: Should we do a comparison of build systems in terms of what
  we need from them on the list? Similar to 'Documentation/technical/unit-tests.txt'
  • Patrick: I can write such a thing.

There is now Documentation/technical/build-systems.txt, written by Patrick Steinhardt (@pks-t).

[chriscool]

Actually I already started writing the blob post that GitLab will publish about the upcoming v2.48.0 and we might talk about the Meson build system if it is part of that release (otherwise it will hopefully be part of the next one). So I have started researching the subject a bit, and yeah around 2006 it looks like you introduced and worked on the configure.ac file to add autoconf build support to Git.

I will see if I have time to work on an article for Git Rev News about it...

[jnareb]

@chriscool , whether the information about modernizing the build system, choosing Meson, and adding support for it will be on GitLab Blog (perhaps in the future), or as an article in Git Rev News - in my opinion it does not matter, it is important that the information is or will be there.

[sivaraam]

ve nudged Karthik to see if we could get an interview from him. Otherwise, I suppose we'll have no interview for this edition.

[chriscool]

Thanks @sivaraam ! No worries if we have no interview for this edition.