Re: [PATCH v4 1/4] Avoid Coverity warning about unfree()d git_exec_path()

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 8:22 AM, Johannes Schindelin
[off-list ref] wrote:

Technically, it is correct that git_exec_path() returns a possibly
malloc()ed string. Practically, it is *sometimes* not malloc()ed. So
let's just use a static variable to make it a singleton. That'll shut
Coverity up, hopefully.

I picked up this patch and applied it to the coverity branch
that I maintain at github/stefanbeller/git.

I'd love to see this patch upstream as it reduces my maintenance
burden of the coverity branch by a patch.

Early on when Git was new to coverity, some arguments were made
that patches like these only clutter the main code base which is read
by a lot of people, hence we want these quirks for coverity not upstream.
And I think that still holds.

If this patch is only to appease coverity (as the commit message eludes
to) I think this may be a bad idea for upstream.  If this patch fixes an
actual problem, then the commit message needs to spell that out.

Thanks,
Stefan