many_different_states fails on Windows with GIX_TEST_IGNORE_ARCHIVES=1 about gitoxide

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting and the intense research - it helped me a lot to understand what's going on.

It's a bit sad to see that 9 tests fail when bluntly applying my preferred solution: setting MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict via gix-testtools, but I will read up on your findings there in the hopes this can be made to work after all and in a way that is at least somewhat maintainable.

Lastly, my feeling is that Git requires symlinks to work but might disable support (or otherwise prohibit them) for some Windows related tests. That's how I would do it anyway to be able to use the existing test-suite as is, and it's what I'd wish to accomplish for gitoxide as well. Those running the tests must allow symlinks or expect failure of some tests, something I find reasonable to expect on a developer machine.

[EliahKagan]

Lastly, my feeling is that Git requires symlinks to work but might disable support (or otherwise prohibit them) for some Windows related tests. That's how I would do it anyway to be able to use the existing test-suite as is, and it's what I'd wish to accomplish for gitoxide as well. Those running the tests must allow symlinks or expect failure of some tests, something I find reasonable to expect on a developer machine.

That makes sense, given that the alternatives--at least those I am unaware of--would hamper clarity.

[EliahKagan]

This issue was fixed by #1444.

To confirm this, note the absence of

gix-diff-tests::diff tree::changes::to_obtain_tree::many_different_states

in the updated list of failing tests in #1358.

Although that test was never listed there even before it was updated, that is because I opened this issue for the new failure rather than editing the list there. Since #1444, I have rerun all tests on all three major platforms including Windows. Although some tests continue to fail on Windows when GIX_TEST_IGNORE_ARCHIVES=1 is set, this many_different_states test does not fail on Windows or any other platforms tested, with or without GIX_TEST_IGNORE_ARCHIVES=1.

This is as suspected based on earlier runs in which I set MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict manually prior to #1444. Since #1444, that no longer has to be set manually to make many_different_states pass with GIX_TEST_IGNORE_ARCHIVES=1.

(The status of this issue is thus the same as #1443, but unfortunately it doesn't look like I can myself mark this specifically as closed by #1444.)