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O239

Member

Registered: 2024-03-01

Posts: 9

Any reason to use git+https for GitHub commits instead of just https?

Is there a reason why for example the telegram-desktop package downloads its tdlib dependency using the following source URL:

git+https://github.com/tdlib/td.git#commit=${_td_commit}

Instead of using something like:

https://github.com/tdlib/td/archive/${_td_commit}.tar.gz

Which is similar to how the main repo is downloaded? Pulling the entire tdlib repo instead of just the snapshot takes a while and wastes a lot of space, so I'm wondering if there's a good reason for it.

Whoracle

Member

Registered: 2010-11-02

Posts: 235

Re: Any reason to use git+https for GitHub commits instead of just https?

Spitballing here, but I think e.g. git submodules wouldn't be in the tarball.

O239

Member

Registered: 2024-03-01

Posts: 9

Re: Any reason to use git+https for GitHub commits instead of just https?

Spitballing here, but I think e.g. git submodules wouldn't be in the tarball.

Could be, generally. Though this particular package builds fine with the tarball.

Last edited by O239 (2026-08-10 18:14:10)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,432

Re: Any reason to use git+https for GitHub commits instead of just https?

More spitballing, less traffic when rebuilding the package and on the other hand afaiu the autogenerated tarballs have a limited shelf life (though iirc it's two years) and the checksum might not be stable.

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loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,009

Re: Any reason to use git+https for GitHub commits instead of just https?

The git clone allows for easier cherry-picking, the increased initial download increase is offset by smaller per version git pulls.