Subject: Re: [bug#49457] [PATCH v2] gnu: Add emacs-consult-notmuch.

From: Kyle Meyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2021 20:13:00 -0400

Nicolas Goaziou writes:

> Kyle Meyer <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>> Nicolas Goaziou writes:
>>
>>> However, I think it is a bug if Emacs Magit does not work with git in
>>> profile. We should modify the source so both magit-git-executable and
>>> magit-gitk-executable point to those from inputs.
>>>
>>> I suggest to open a new bug report about it, WDYT?
>>
>> Rewriting magit-git-executable to an absolute file name will break Magit
>> for those that use it over TRAMP.
>
> Point taken. However, such users can fix it by modifying the
> `magit-git-executable' defcustom again, can't they?

Sure.

Given the number of "oops, some change didn't consider tramp
compatibility" bugs that crop up in Magit, my guess is that Magit is
widely used over TRAMP.  So, potentially many users are affected, but I
agree it's an easy fix once they spend time to debug what the issue is.
(That collectively could amount to a lot of wasted time, so in my eyes
it depends on what the practical problem being fixed is.)

> So, the situation would arguably not be worse that what it is currently,
> since it simply doesn't work for users relying on a local installation
> of git, and those are probably more common.

Hmm, I'm not clear on what the current problem is; a user will typically
have "git" on their path one way or the other.  Given Magit's heavily
used, I would have expected to see many Guix bug reports about about it
if it were a problem in practice.

But 1) perhaps I'm missing something or 2) perhaps for philosophical
reasons or to promote best practices rewriting magit-git-executable is
worth the breakage.  My drive-by comment was just to mention the
possible breakage [*].  (I don't have a personal stake in what's done
because I don't install Magit from Guix.)

> Also, a third option: since we're not making use of git input at
> runtime, why should it be an input at all? If it is needed at build
> time, a native-input should suffice.

Yeah, that sounds right (though I haven't tested it).

[*] And it might not break things for much longer.  On Magit's end,
    Jonas recently floated the idea of not using magit-git-executable
    when using TRAMP.

    https://github.com/magit/magit/issues/4433#issuecomment-875964528