On Tue, May 6, 2025 at 9:32 PM Todd Zullinger <tmz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Eric Sunshine wrote: > > Although we periodically hear that someone uses it, git-contacts > > probably falls into the "tool has a clear alternative" category. In > > this case, git-related[*] is a separately-maintained more functional > > drop-in replacement which people could be using instead of > > git-contacts. > > > > [*]: https://github.com/felipec/git-related/blob/master/git-related > > It may be worth noting that git-contacts is suggested in > both MyFirstContribution.adoc and SubmittingPatches. I think I knew but forgot about those mentions. Certainly useful information if Patrick decides to pursue retirement of git-contacts. > It probably helps that since 824503ce88 (SubmittingPatches: > clarify 'git-contacts' location, 2024-04-18) there has been > a note stating this isn't "part of the core `git` binary and > must be called directly." That is relatively recent, though. Out of curiosity, I Googled git-contacts but didn't find any meaningful hits. Pretty much the only pages found were renderings of Git's documentation (including SubmittingPatches and the man page for git-contacts itself), as well as the few patches to the Git mailing list which introduced or touched git-contacts over the years. I did not find any general discussion or recommendations to use git-contacts, so perhaps it indeed is not very much used. > I added git-contacts to the Fedora git packaging shortly > after 92a5dbbc22 (SubmittingPatches: mention the git > contacts command, 2018-04-11), presuming some readers would > want to use it. (I never want to penalize users who are > diligent enough to read SubmittingPatches. :) > > All that said, I don't have any strong opinion on whether it > is kept or removed, let alone when that might happen. I > don't know that I've ever used it, other than for testing > that it worked while packaging it. I've never used git-contacts either, despite the fact that I'm the one who ported Felipe's git-related from Ruby[1] to Perl[2] for inclusion in Git's "contrib" since the Ruby version had been rejected due to being written in a language not already employed elsewhere in the project. The Perl rewrite also included a number of useful enhancements which Felipe later incorporated into git-related after he published it as a standalone project. He has since extended it to include even more features, so it's functionally a superset of git-contacts. By the way, Felipe also sent a patch series[3] eleven years ago with the same intention of Patrick's series under discussion. Felipe's series was never picked up but did undertake the retirement of git-contacts. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/1369986380-412-1-git-send-email-felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx/ [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/1374403962-48361-1-git-send-email-sunshine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ [3]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/1399662703-355-1-git-send-email-felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx/T/
