On Tue, Apr 4, 2023 at 1:35 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Tao Klerks <tao@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > If you get it wrong, an inconvenient or even bad > > thing happens: If you're in a GUI context and you forget to say > > `--gui`, then you get the CLI tool - not the end of the world, you > > might argue. If you're in a non-GUI context and you say `--gui`, you > > get a (hopefully intelligible) error about not finding a display, or > > worst case, you hang - and git doesn't know what happened, the > > messaging has to assume you aborted explicitly. > > The worst case I can think of is if you have a machine that allows a > persistent virtual graphical session (remote desktop). You can go > there, open a terminal and create a screen session, which captures > the $DISPLAY in effect. You may disconnect from the screen session > before you disconnect from the remote desktop. As the remote > desktop is persistent, the $DISPLAY would be valid even after you > disconnect from there. > > Then you ssh into the machine and connect to the screen session. If > you say "xterm &" in that screen session, a new window with a > terminal will open and be shown on that remote display session, > which you cannot see until you reconnect to the remote desktop. > Running "git mergetool --gui" would be the same. > > With the proposed patch, the experience would become even worse in > that scenario, I am afraid. "git mergetool" (without "--[no-]gui") > would detect the presense of $DISPLAY and start a GUI mergetool that > you cannot view or interact with ;-). You need to explicitly say > "git mergetool --no-gui" in such a case to force use of cli tool. > > Even with that caveat, I think the proposed behaviour would be a net > improvement. I almost always work in non-GUI environment, but I can > see many people work in both and depending on their environment wish > to use the best tool for the situation. > > > If there were a way to get git to autoselect "--gui" by presence of > > the DISPLAY, as it does for the *default* mergetool, then this kind of > > flow would be much more intuitive, usable, etc. > > > > I'm not sure whether I'm explaining better, or just repeating myself, > > so I'll stop here :) > > Hopefully your explanation was clear enough. Others may be able to > offer solution better than "look at DISPLAY and choose --[no-]gui > when neither is given from the command line", but I think at least I > understand your motivation behind this change. > > Thanks. Thanks for the thorough explanation. With that in mind, this all sounds good to me. -- David
