D. Ben Knoble
bc53d6c795
Makefile-based builds have had this knob for most of the project's life,
since a479a564dc (Documentation/Makefile: allow
man.base.url.for.relative.link to be set from Make, 2009-12-03).
Meson, however, hard-codes the equivalent of $prefix/$mandir, which is
not really where all the HTML docs are stored in most distro builds.
Plus, this value is missing a trailing slash, so links come out broken,
like this in git.1:
1. Git User’s Manual
/usr/share/manuser-manual.html
Of course we can do better:
1. Change the default to match Make: use file://$(htmldir)/ (with
trailing slash!) to form a local URL pointing at the HTML docs. This
is safe because all current uses of link:<relative> point at HTML
docs:
git grep 'link:[[:alnum:]]' Documentation | grep -ve html -e http
produces only a single result (Documentation/howto/howto-index.sh)
which can be ignored. Since nothing else [*] in the normal build sets
MAN_BASE_URL, this seems like the right default.
2. Provide a configurable knob, just like the Makefile, so distributions
that build with Meson (like Gentoo) can decide where to make the
links if they need to. Those that set htmldir probably won't need to
tweak this any further, though.
[*]: Well, Git's todo branch has a script dodoc.sh to build and archive
docs for kernel.org; these docs are pulled by Homebrew
installations, for example. It sets MAN_BASE_URL to "git_htmldocs",
so the equivalent note on macOS + Homebrew is
1. Git User’s Manual
git-htmldocs/user-manual.html
which is not functional either, but that's a problem for
downstream. In any case, users can recover the right path with
"git --html-path".
Signed-off-by: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Git - fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.
See Documentation/gittutorial.adoc to get started, then see
Documentation/giteveryday.adoc for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-<commandname>.adoc for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the
documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.adoc
(man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is
installed).
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission and Documentation/CodingGuidelines).
Those wishing to help with error message, usage and informational message
string translations (localization l10) should see po/README.md
(a po file is a Portable Object file that holds the translations).
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Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the Git Security mailing list git-security@googlegroups.com.
The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (depending on your mood):
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks