Hi,

On Thu, 19 Jun 2008, Peter Harris wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 8:42 AM, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 18 Jun 2008, Edward Z. Yang wrote:
> >
> >> Clifford Caoile wrote:
> >>
> >> > One interesting thing is that "USB memory" devices for Windows are
> >> > often FAT format, so some install size optimations and features
> >> > dependent on NTFS will not work.
> 
> Specifically, FAT does not support hard links. A quick 
> back-of-the-envelope calculation shows over 60MB worth of space saved in 
> an msysGit install by using hard links, which is a sizable fraction of 
> my 256MB USB memory stick.

Then the proper solution is to push for obsolescence of "git-<prog>" in 
favour of "git <prog>".

Don't try to solve the wrong problem.

> > That is a horrible suggestion.  NTFS is complicated, and not well 
> > supported under most operating systems (and maybe seriously 
> > underdocumented?).  FAT, on the other hand, has been a stable, 
> > standard file system, even if there might be patent issues in the 
> > future, thanks to our "friends" out of Redmond.
> 
> All true, except for the part about it being a horrible[1] suggestion. 
> What would you suggest as a reasonable alternative? ext2 with an add-on 
> Windows driver? Not everyone has permission to install drivers on their 
> Windows boxes.
> 
> > I hope you no longer suggest that, then, unless you are only ever 
> > interested in supporting Windows, in which case I am no longer 
> > interested.
> 
> I'm curious. What platforms other than Windows do you expect to run 
> msysGit's git*.exe binaries?

You are missing my point.  I want to be able to access the USB stick also 
with other platforms.  That is the whole _point_ of a portable drive.

Ciao,
Dscho

Reply via email to