Bug 955530 – dev-vcs/git without USE=perl does not install git-send-email, but there is no way to know why

• Status: CONFIRMED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Marius Dinu 2025-05-06 18:08:57 UTC]

# git send-email
git: 'send-email' is not a git command. See 'git --help'.

# equery f dev-vcs/git | grep -i mail
/usr/share/doc/git-2.48.1/git-check-mailmap.txt.bz2
/usr/share/doc/git-2.48.1/git-mailinfo.txt.bz2
/usr/share/doc/git-2.48.1/git-mailsplit.txt.bz2
/usr/share/doc/git-2.48.1/git-send-email.txt.bz2
/usr/share/doc/git-2.48.1/gitmailmap.txt.bz2
/usr/share/git-core/templates/hooks/sendemail-validate.sample
/usr/share/git/contrib/hooks/multimail
/usr/share/git/contrib/hooks/multimail/README.Git
/usr/share/git/contrib/hooks/post-receive-email
/usr/share/git/contrib/stats/mailmap.pl
/usr/share/man/man1/git-check-mailmap.1.bz2
/usr/share/man/man1/git-mailinfo.1.bz2
/usr/share/man/man1/git-mailsplit.1.bz2
/usr/share/man/man1/git-send-email.1.bz2
/usr/share/man/man5/gitmailmap.5.bz2

# equery u dev-vcs/git
[ Legend : U - final flag setting for installation]
[        : I - package is installed with flag     ]
[ Colors : set, unset                             ]
 * Found these USE flags for dev-vcs/git-2.49.0-r2:
 U I
 - - cgi                             : Install gitweb too
 + - curl                            : Support fetching and pushing (requires webdav too) over http:// and https:// protocols
 - - cvs                             : Enable CVS (Concurrent Versions System) integration
 - - doc                             : Add extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally
 - - gpg                             : Pull in gnupg for signing -- without gnupg, attempts at signing will fail at runtime!
 - - highlight                       : GitWeb support for app-text/highlight
 + + iconv                           : Enable support for the iconv character set conversion library
 - - keyring                         : Enable support for freedesktop.org Secret Service API password store
 + + nls                             : Add Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)
 + + pcre                            : Add support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions
 - - perforce                        : Add support for Perforce version control system (requires manual installation of Perforce client)
 - - perl                            : Add optional support/bindings for the Perl language
 - - python_single_target_python3_10 : Build for Python 3.10 only
 - - python_single_target_python3_11 : Build for Python 3.11 only
 + + python_single_target_python3_12 : Build for Python 3.12 only
 - - python_single_target_python3_13 : Build for Python 3.13 only
 + - safe-directory                  : Respect the safe.directory setting
 - - subversion                      : Include git-svn for dev-vcs/subversion support
 - - test                            : Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
 + - tk                              : Include the 'gitk' and 'git gui' tools
 - - webdav                          : Adds support for push'ing to HTTP/HTTPS repositories via DAV
 - - xinetd                          : Add support for the xinetd super-server


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge dev-vcs/git without perl USE flag
Actual Results:  
There is no git-send-email installed.
There is no message during or after emerge about it.
"equery u dev-vcs/git" doesn't say anything about it either.
There is no way to know why it's missing.

Expected Results:  
git commands dependent on perl should be listed in perl USE flag description.
-or-
There should be a message after emerge-ing git without perl.

[Comment 1 Sam James 2025-05-06 18:12:51 UTC]

Thanks. I agree the USE description here needs fixing.