git/contrib/emacs
Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 6d5ed4836d git{,-blame}.el: remove old bitrotting Emacs code
The git-blame.el mode has been superseded by Emacs's own
vc-annotate (invoked by C-x v g). Users of the git.el mode are now
much better off using either Magit or the Git backend for Emacs's own
VC mode.

These modes were added over 10 years ago when Emacs's own Git support
was much less mature, and there weren't other mature modes in the wild
or shipped with Emacs itself.

These days these modes have few if any users, and users of git aren't
well served by us shipping these (some OS's install them alongside git
by default, which is confusing and leads users astray).

So let's remove these per Alexandre Julliard's message to the
ML[1]. If someone still wants these for some reason they're better
served by hosting these elsewhere (e.g. on ELPA), instead of us
distributing them with git.

However, since downstream packagers such as Debian are packaging this
as git-el it's less disruptive to still carry these files as Elisp
code that'll error out with a message suggesting alternatives, rather
than drop the files entirely[2].

Then rather than receive a cryptic load error when they upgrade
existing users will get an error directing them to the README file, or
to just stop requiring these modes. I think it makes sense to link to
GitHub's hosting of contrib/emacs/README (which'll be updated by the
time users see this) so they don't have to hunt down the packaged
README on their local system.

1. "Re: [PATCH] git.el: handle default excludesfile
   properly" (87muzlwhb0.fsf@winehq.org) --
   https://public-inbox.org/git/87muzlwhb0.fsf@winehq.org/

2. "Re: [PATCH v3] git{,-blame}.el: remove old bitrotting Emacs
   code" (20180327165751.GA4343@aiede.svl.corp.google.com) --
   https://public-inbox.org/git/20180327165751.GA4343@aiede.svl.corp.google.com/

Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2018-04-16 17:25:49 +09:00
..
README git{,-blame}.el: remove old bitrotting Emacs code 2018-04-16 17:25:49 +09:00
git-blame.el git{,-blame}.el: remove old bitrotting Emacs code 2018-04-16 17:25:49 +09:00
git.el git{,-blame}.el: remove old bitrotting Emacs code 2018-04-16 17:25:49 +09:00

README

This directory used to contain various modules for Emacs support.

These were added shortly after Git was first released. Since then
Emacs's own support for Git got better than what was offered by these
modes. There are also popular 3rd-party Git modes such as Magit which
offer replacements for these.

The following modules were available, and can be dug up from the Git
history:

* git.el:

  Wrapper for "git status" that provided access to other git commands.

  Modern alternatives to this include Magit, and VC mode that ships
  with Emacs.

* git-blame.el:

  A wrapper for "git blame" written before Emacs's own vc-annotate
  mode learned to invoke git-blame, which can be done via C-x v g.

* vc-git.el:

  This file used to contain the VC-mode backend for git, but it is no
  longer distributed with git. It is now maintained as part of Emacs
  and included in standard Emacs distributions starting from version
  22.2.

  If you have an earlier Emacs version, upgrading to Emacs 22 is
  recommended, since the VC mode in older Emacs is not generic enough
  to be able to support git in a reasonable manner, and no attempt has
  been made to backport vc-git.el.