Remove MSys Support

From: Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

nedalloc was added to fix the slowness of memory allocator. Here specifically for the MSys2 build there seems to be a duplication of USE_NED_ALLOCATOR directive.

So this patch intends to remove the
duplicate USE_NED_ALLOCATOR and keeping it only into the MSys2 config section so it still uses the nedalloc.

Signed-off-by Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

---
 config.mak.uname | 1 -
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)

config.mak.uname +0 -0

index d63629fe807..377667c4bbc 100644

From: Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

The msysGit (i.e. Git for Windows 1.x' SDK) is no longer used and the last known user for MSys1 + MinGW has switched to MSys2.

So there was no
reason to keep the msysGit/MSys1 config section. This Patch intends to remove the support of both the builds and throw an error on execution.

The output of uname -r if returns us with '1.' then it relates with MSys1 build environment and msysGit which we don't want to continue ahead and thus an error can be expected.

The MSYS2 is currently used into the MinGW so we can get that part running directly without any conditionals required.

Signed-off-by Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

---
 config.mak.uname | 85 ++++++++++++++++++++----------------------------
 1 file changed, 35 insertions(+), 50 deletions(-)

config.mak.uname +35 -50

index 377667c4bbc..965ec530837 100644
@@ -623,6 +623,9 @@ ifeq ($(uname_S),NONSTOP_KERNEL)
 	SHELL_PATH = /usr/coreutils/bin/bash
 endif
 ifeq ($(uname_S),MINGW)
+	ifeq ($(shell expr "$(uname_R)" : '1\.'),2)
+		$(error "Building with MSys is no longer supported")
+	endif
 	pathsep = ;
 	HAVE_ALLOCA_H = YesPlease
 	NO_PREAD = YesPlease

@@ -676,61 +679,43 @@ ifeq ($(uname_S),MINGW)
 	RC = windres -O coff
 	NATIVE_CRLF = YesPlease
 	X = .exe
-ifneq (,$(wildcard ../THIS_IS_MSYSGIT))
-	htmldir = doc/git/html/
-	prefix =
+	# MSys2
+	prefix = /usr/
+	# Enable DEP
+	BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--nxcompat
+	# Enable ASLR (unless debugging)
+	ifneq (,$(findstring -O,$(filter-out -O0 -Og,$(CFLAGS))))
+		BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--dynamicbase
+	endif
+	ifeq (MINGW32,$(MSYSTEM))
+		prefix = /mingw32
+		HOST_CPU = i686
+		BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--pic-executable,-e,_mainCRTStartup
+	endif
+	ifeq (MINGW64,$(MSYSTEM))
+		prefix = /mingw64
+		HOST_CPU = x86_64
+		BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--pic-executable,-e,mainCRTStartup
+	else
+		COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D_USE_32BIT_TIME_T
+		BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--large-address-aware
+	endif
+	CC = gcc
+	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO=0 -DDETECT_MSYS_TTY \
+		-fstack-protector-strong
+	EXTLIBS += -lntdll
 	INSTALL = /bin/install
-	EXTLIBS += /mingw/lib/libz.a
 	INTERNAL_QSORT = YesPlease
 	HAVE_LIBCHARSET_H = YesPlease
-	NO_GETTEXT = YesPlease
-	NO_PYTHON = YesPlease
-	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS
-else
-	ifneq ($(shell expr "$(uname_R)" : '1\.'),2)
-		# MSys2
-		prefix = /usr/
-		# Enable DEP
-		BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--nxcompat
-		# Enable ASLR (unless debugging)
-		ifneq (,$(findstring -O,$(filter-out -O0 -Og,$(CFLAGS))))
-			BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--dynamicbase
-		endif
-		ifeq (MINGW32,$(MSYSTEM))
-			prefix = /mingw32
-			HOST_CPU = i686
-			BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--pic-executable,-e,_mainCRTStartup
-		endif
-		ifeq (MINGW64,$(MSYSTEM))
-			prefix = /mingw64
-			HOST_CPU = x86_64
-			BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--pic-executable,-e,mainCRTStartup
-		else
-			COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D_USE_32BIT_TIME_T
-			BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--large-address-aware
-		endif
-		CC = gcc
-		COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO=0 -DDETECT_MSYS_TTY \
-			-fstack-protector-strong
-		EXTLIBS += -lntdll
-		INSTALL = /bin/install
-		INTERNAL_QSORT = YesPlease
-		HAVE_LIBCHARSET_H = YesPlease
-		USE_GETTEXT_SCHEME = fallthrough
-		USE_LIBPCRE = YesPlease
-		USE_NED_ALLOCATOR = YesPlease
-		ifeq (/mingw64,$(subst 32,64,$(prefix)))
-			# Move system config into top-level /etc/
-			ETC_GITCONFIG = ../etc/gitconfig
-			ETC_GITATTRIBUTES = ../etc/gitattributes
-		endif
-	else
-		COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO
-		NO_CURL = YesPlease
-		NO_PYTHON = YesPlease
+	USE_GETTEXT_SCHEME = fallthrough
+	USE_LIBPCRE = YesPlease
+	USE_NED_ALLOCATOR = YesPlease
+	ifeq (/mingw64,$(subst 32,64,$(prefix)))
+		# Move system config into top-level /etc/
+		ETC_GITCONFIG = ../etc/gitconfig
+		ETC_GITATTRIBUTES = ../etc/gitattributes
 	endif
 endif
-endif
 ifeq ($(uname_S),QNX)
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DSA_RESTART=0
 	EXPAT_NEEDS_XMLPARSE_H = YesPlease

The msysGit and the MSys v1.x has been dropped into this patch and the USE_NED_ALLOCATOR variable was duplicated here in the implementation so its deduplication was also made in this patch.

Signed-off-by Harshil-Jani [email protected]

Quoted 4 lines · Harshil-Jani via GitGitGadget

From: Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

The msysGit (i.e. Git for Windows 1.x' SDK) is no longer used and the last known user for MSys1 + MinGW has switched to MSys2.

It is curious that we can speak with such a certainty of the lack of users of such a popular project. References?

Quoted 5 lines · Harshil Jani via GitGitGadget

The msysGit and the MSys v1.x has been dropped into this patch and the USE_NED_ALLOCATOR variable was duplicated here in the implementation so its deduplication was also made in this patch.

Signed-off-by Harshil-Jani [email protected]

Thanks, Harshil.

I do not do Windows, so I sent a few drive-by comments to suggest improvements that may help to make the patch more understandable, but more importantly, I did not see the patch asking input from anybody who have worked on the port of Git to the Window system, so I ran the following

$ git shortlog -sn --no-merges v2.39.0 -- compat/win\*\* compat/mingw.\* | head -5
   100	Johannes Schindelin
    56	Johannes Sixt
    41	Karsten Blees
    23	Erik Faye-Lund
    13	Jeff Hostetler

and then picked those names we still often see on the list to attract their attention.

Quoted 9 lines · Junio C Hamano

Quoted 4 lines · Harshil-Jani via GitGitGadget

From: Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

The msysGit (i.e. Git for Windows 1.x' SDK) is no longer used and the last known user for MSys1 + MinGW has switched to MSys2.

It is curious that we can speak with such a certainty of the lack of users of such a popular project. References?

I see J6t mentioning about such a switch,

https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/

but I do not know if it is sensible to claim that this was the last known user switching away. Perhaps

Last time the code around here was modified, which eventually led to 49d279f8 (windows: include the Python bits when building Git for Windows, 2022-07-29), the change was carefully written to keep things unchanged for Msys1, as at least one user (Johannes Sixt) who did crucial work to support Git on Windows and we did not want to break Msys1 (yet). In the discussion J6t confirmed that he no longer is on Msys1 (cf. [*1*]).

to replace the paragraph, with this at the end

    [References]
    *1* https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/)

explain the change (be sure to explain ../THIS_IS_MSYSGIT bit, too, not just the $(uname_R) bit), and then throw in something like

There may be users other than J6t who needs a working Msys1, but we can revert this patch if it becomes necessary (i.e. when they complain).

somewhere?

Thanks.

I need to note that Harshil and I have been communicating about this patch before it was submitted. So here is my explicit ACK.

It would be good to avoid over-indexing on individual person's preferences. While it seems to be quite common in the Git project, it is obvious how this harms the Git project more than e.g. focusing on users' needs would.

A more productive line of thought would therefore be:

MSys has long fallen behind MSYS2 in features like Unicode or x86_64 support or even security bug fixes, and is therefore no longer used by anyone in the Git developer community. The Git for Windows project itself started switching from MSys to MSYS2 early in 2015, i.e. about eight years ago. Let's drop supporting MSys as a development platform.

Range-diff vs v1:

 1:  bc79dfcc4d4 = 1:  bc79dfcc4d4 mingw: remove duplicate `USE_NED_ALLOCATOR` directive
 2:  e6d3d280a4f ! 2:  0c0289343fb mingw: remove msysGit/MSYS1 support

@@ Metadata
## Commit message ##
mingw: remove msysGit/MSYS1 support

- The msysGit (i.e. Git for Windows 1.x' SDK) is no longer used and the
- last known user for MSys1 + MinGW has switched to MSys2. So there was no
- reason to keep the msysGit/MSys1 config section. This Patch intends to
- remove the support of both the builds and throw an error on
- execution.
-
- The output of uname -r if returns us with '1.' then it relates with MSys1
- build environment and msysGit which we don't want to continue ahead and thus
- an error can be expected.
-
- The MSYS2 is currently used into the MinGW so we can get that part
- running directly without any conditionals required.
+ MSys has long fallen behind MSYS2 in features like Unicode or
+ x86_64 support or even security bug fixes, and is therefore no
+ longer used by anyone in the Git developer community. The Git for
+ Windows project itself started switching from MSys to MSYS2 early
+ in 2015, i.e. about eight years ago. Let's drop supporting MSys as
+ a development platform.

Signed-off-by Harshil-Jani <[email protected]>

I'm fine with these patches, too. Here's my ACK.