Re: [PATCH RFC v2 2/2] Move libgit.a sources into separate "lib/" directory

On Wed, Jul 01, 2026 at 07:45:09AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Phillip Wood [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

As I said last time this came up, I don't really buy the discoverability 
argument because there are just as many files to trawl through to find 
what you're looking through and now there is an extra directory to 
check. I think the solution to that is to recommend folks use "git grep" 
or ctags etc. not moving code to a new directory.

Hear, hear.  Also it would be great if we can trick some talented
technical writer into writing the "map" of the source so that by
reading this one or two pager, any new person with reasonable
competence will know how things are partitioned into pieces and how
these pieces fit together.  I wonder how good LLMs are these days?
;-)

This isn't about discoverability of the library files though, I
specifically want to improve discoverability of all the other files that
we have in our root directory. So yes, I fully agree that this change
does not help to make that one file that is part of our library easier
to find.

quoted

I do however think putting all the library code in a subdirectory makes 
it easier to say things like "please try to avoid new uses of 
'the_repository' and prefer 'error()' over 'die()' in library code" 
because all the library code is in the same directory. I think that is a 
much stronger selling point.

Yes.  "library code (things outside the subdirectories) should not
use X" would work just fine, though.

That rule doesn't quite work:

  - We have several C files that are not library files and that are in
    the top-level directory. For example "scalar.c" or "shell.c".

  - We have several C files that are part of the library and that are in
    a subdirectory. For example "compat/", "refs/", "odb/".

So having this properly cleaned up would help to have clear indicators
what component a given file belongs to.

quoted

Another cost is remembering things have moved - the other day I spent 
too long wondering why "git show origin/seen:wt-status.c" wasn't working 
until I ran "git log origin/seen" and realized it had move to 
lib/wt-status.c.

Yes, this has bit me multiple dozen times, as the tip of 'seen' is
contaminated with this rename, already.  It is a huge pain.

Yeah, this one I don't have any arguments against besides a very
hand-wavy "it'll get better over time" :)

Thanks!

Patrick