On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 10:27:25AM +0900, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Jonathan Nieder [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Hi,

Emily Shaffer wrote:

quoted

Indicate that the user needs some dependencies before the build will run
happily on their machine; this dependency list doesn't seem to be made
clear anywhere else in the project documentation.

In theory, this info should be in INSTALL.  I wouldn't be surprised if
it's missing some info, though.

[...]

quoted

--- a/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.txt
+++ b/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.txt

@@ -38,6 +38,30 @@ $ git clone https://github.com/git/git git
 $ cd git
 ----
 
+[[dependencies]]
+=== Installing Dependencies
+
+To build Git from source, you need to have a handful of dependencies installed
+on your system. For a hint of what's needed, you can take a look at
+`ci/install-dependencies.sh`.
+
+To install the dependencies needed for a basic build on Linux, run something
+like this (or replace `apt` with your distribution's package manager of choice):

pedantic nit: s/or replace/replacing/ ("or" would mean rpm is an
alternative to what came before, but "something like" in the phrase
before has rpm already included)

This section, as you hinted at the beginning, should be a single
sentence, i.e. just "follow INSTALL".  Any clarifications should 
be made as a patch to the INSTALL file.

Thanks. I ended up with a little over one sentence; I don't like that a
newbie following INSTALL file would end up with their locally-built Git
installed (and they may only be interested in a one-off contribution,
and never fetch again, or something) so I tried to highlight the
dependencies portion of INSTALL:

  To build Git from source, you need to have a handful of dependencies installed
  on your system. For a hint of what's needed, you can take a look at
  `INSTALL`, paying close attention to the section about Git's dependencies on
  external programs and libraries. That document mentions a way to "test-drive"
  our freshly built Git without installing; that's the method we'll be using in
  this tutorial.

  Make sure that your environment has everything you need by building your brand
  new clone of Git from the above step:

 - Emily