Over time, Git has grown quite a lot. With this evolution, many ideas
that were sensible at the time they were introduced are not anymore and
are thus considered to be deprecated. And while some deprecations may be
noted in manpages, most of them are actually deprecated in the "hive
mind" of the Git community, only.
Introduce a new document that lists upcoming breaking changes, but also
deprecations which we are not willing to go through with, to address
this issue. This document serves multiple purposes:
- It is a way to facilitate discussion around proposed deprecations.
- It allows users to learn about deprecations and speak up in case
they have good reasons why a certain feature should not be
deprecated.
- It states intent and documents where the Git project wants to go,
both in the case where we want to deprecate, but also in the case
where we don't want to deprecate a specific feature.
The document is _not_ intended to cast every single discussion into
stone. It is supposed to be a living document that may change over time
when there are good reasons for it to change.
Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@xxxxxx>
---
I've dropped the RFC prefix of this series now. I think that the overall
idea has been received well, and folks are supportive of documenting
upcoming breaking changes.
There's only a single change compared to the second version. In any
case, most of the proposed deprecations didn't get much pushback. I'm
less sure whether this is because people didn't look, or because they
silently agree with what I propose for deprecation.
I'm going to assume it's the latter. If you feel otherwise, my proposed
way forward would be to drop most of the items, merge the document, and
then add items via separate threads where we can discuss each
deprecation on its own.
Please let me know your preference!
Patrick
Range-diff against v2:
1: 8e268a291b ! 1: 84c01f1b0a docs: document upcoming breaking changes
@@ Documentation/UpcomingBreakingChanges.md (new)
+ They have been outdated since e650d0643b (docs: mark info/grafts as outdated,
+ 2014-03-05) and will be removed.
+
++ - git-pickaxe, an alias for git-blame(1), has been retired in acca687fa9
++ (git-pickaxe: retire pickaxe, 2006-11-08) and will be removed.
++
+## Superseded features that will not be deprecated
+
+Some features have gained newer replacements that aim to improve the design in
Documentation/UpcomingBreakingChanges.md | 122 +++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 122 insertions(+)
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+# Upcoming breaking changes
+
+The Git project aims to ensure backwards compatibility to the best extent
+possible. Minor releases will not break backwards compatibility unless there is
+a very strong reason to do so, like for example a security vulnerability.
+
+Regardless of that, due to the age of the Git project, it is only natural to
+accumulate a backlog of backwards-incompatible changes that will eventually be
+required to keep the project aligned with a changing world. These changes fall
+into several categories:
+
+ - Changes to long established defaults.
+
+ - Concepts that have been replaced with a superior design.
+
+ - Concepts, commands, configuration or options that have been lacking in major
+ ways and that cannot be fixed.
+
+The Git project will thus irregularly release major versions that deliberately
+break backwards compatibility with older versions. This is done to ensure that
+Git remains relevant, safe and maintainable going forward. The release cadence
+of major versions is typically measured in multiple years.
+
+The intent of this document is to track upcoming deprecations for the next major
+Git release. Furthermore, this document also tracks what will _not_ be
+deprecated. This is done such that the outcome of discussions documente both
+when the discussion favors deprecation, but also when it rejects a deprecation.
+
+It is supposed to be a living document where proposed changes and
+deprecations are up for discussion.
+
+## Git 3.0
+
+### Changes
+
+ - The default initial branch name will be changed from "master" to "main".
+
+ Cf. <pull.762.git.1605221038.gitgitgadget@xxxxxxxxx>,
+ <CAMP44s3BJ3dGsLJ-6yA-Po459=+m826KD9an4+P3qOY1vkbxZg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.
+
+ - The default hash function for new repositories will be changed from "sha1"
+ to "sha256".
+
+ - The default ref backend for new repositories will be changed from "files" to
+ "reftable".
+
+### Removals
+
+ - git-http-push(1) can be used to push objects to a remote repository via
+ HTTP/DAV. Support for write support via WebDAV is not in widespread use
+ nowadays anymore and will be removed together with the command.
+
+ - The dumb HTTP protocol can be used to serve repositories via a plain HTTP
+ server like Apache. The protocol has not seen any updates recently and is
+ neither compatible with alternative hash functions nor with alternative ref
+ backends. It will thus be removed.
+
+ - git-update-server-info(1) generates data required when serving data via the
+ dumb HTTP protocol. Given the removal of that protocol, it serves no purpose
+ anymore and will be removed together with the protocol. This includes the
+ "receive.updateServerInfo" and "repack.updateServerInfo" config keys and the
+ `git repack -n` flag.
+
+ - `$GIT_DIR/branches/` and `$GIT_DIR/remotes/` can be used to specify
+ shorthands for URLs for git-fetch(1), git-pull(1) and git-push(1). This
+ concept has long been replaced by remotes and will thus be removed.
+
+ - "gitweb" and git-instaweb(1) can be used to browse Git repositories via an
+ HTTP server. These scripts have been unmaintained for a significant amount of
+ time and will be removed.
+
+ - git-filter-branch(1) can be used to rewrite history of a repository. It is
+ very slow, hard to use and has many gotchas. It will thus be removed in favor
+ of [git-filter-repo](https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo).
+
+ - The "dashed form", i.e. support for calling `git-<command>` instead of
+ `git <command>` in scripts, has been deprecated for a long time and will be
+ removed.
+
+ - The command to import patches from Quilt seems to be used rarely, if
+ ever, and will be removed.
+
+ - Support for importing repositories from GNU Arch will be removed because
+ it would not appear to have any users.
+
+ - Support for interacting with CVS repositories (via `cvsimport`,
+ `cvsexportcommit` and `cvsserver`) is of dubious use by now, judging by
+ the number of times these commands have been mentioned recently. The
+ code has been essentially unmaintained, too, and will be removed.
+
+ - Support for grafting commits has long been superseded by git-replace(1).
+ Grafts are inferior to replacement refs as the mechanism can lead to
+ hard-to-diagnose problems when transferring objects between repositories.
+ They have been outdated since e650d0643b (docs: mark info/grafts as outdated,
+ 2014-03-05) and will be removed.
+
+ - git-pickaxe, an alias for git-blame(1), has been retired in acca687fa9
+ (git-pickaxe: retire pickaxe, 2006-11-08) and will be removed.
+
+## Superseded features that will not be deprecated
+
+Some features have gained newer replacements that aim to improve the design in
+certain ways. The fact that there is a replacement does not automatically mean
+that the old way of doing things will eventually be removed. This section tracks
+those superseded features.
+
+ - git-annotate(1) is an alias for git-blame(1) with the `-c` flag. As
+ the maintenance burden of carrying both of these commands is negligible, both
+ commands will stay.
+
+ - git-restore(1) and git-switch(1) have been introduced as a replacement for
+ git-checkout(1). As git-checkout(1) is quite established, and as the benefit
+ of switching to git-restore(1) and git-switch(1) is contended, all three
+ commands will stay.
+
+ - git-config(1) has learned to use subcommands that replace implicit actions
+ (e.g. `git config foo.bar baz`) as well as the action flags (e.g. `git config
+ --unset-all`). The action flags will not be removed in the next major Git
+ release as there likely exist a lot of scripts out there that use the old
+ syntax.
+
+ Cf. <ZjiL7vu5kCVwpsLd@tanuki>.
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