Rename the .gvfs folder

[chrisd8088]

This is a proposed change relating to #72 and an addition to the list of issues which follow from that decision (e.g., #130, #131, #132, etc.)

On Linux, the existence of a GVfs .gvfs folder, as created by the GNOME Virtual file system, precludes the use of the directory with VFSForGit; the gvfs clone operation fails with You can't clone inside an existing GVFS repo in the CheckNotInsideExistingRepo() method.

For both this reason, and to fully disambiguate the VFSForGit project from GVfs, it would be preferable to use a different folder name for VFSForGit's metadata, such as .vfsforgit.

[jrbriggs]

We have some internal teams that key off the existence of a .gvfs folder on Windows. However, that is not true of either macOS or Linux. We could go ahead and move those platforms, and Windows could follow at its leisure, with a bit of refactoring. I think we've generally been good about not hardcoding .gvfs, I only see a few places in the codebase. We could pull that into the Platform.

Thoughts @chrisd8088 @wilbaker ?

[wilbaker]

We could go ahead and move those platforms

I agree and I think the sooner we can do this on Mac the better. We don't want any Mac tools to start taking a dependency on .gvfs.

Windows could follow at its leisure, with a bit of refactoring

I agree here as well. I'm not sure that we'll be able to remove the .gvfs folder on Windows completely, but we could leave an empty .gvfs folder next to .vfsforgit on Windows for the tools that need it.

You're right that there's no urgency for Windows, if we move the folder name into the platform we can continue using .gvfs on Windows until we're ready to migrate it.

/ cc: @nickgra to confirm if any Mac tools on his team have taken a dependency on the .gvfs folder.

[chrisd8088]

Thanks for looking at this! If you're able to tackle it sooner rather than later, that's fantastic, and of course I expected there would be challenges with the Windows platform, in particular.

[nickgra]

You're right that there's no urgency for Windows, if we move the folder name into the platform we can continue using .gvfs on Windows until we're ready to migrate it.
@nickgra to confirm if any Mac tools on his team have taken a dependency on the .gvfs folder.

My team is building some tools that we expect to run on Windows and macOS but I believe they key off of an environment variable that another script sets. That script uses the .gvfs folder to determine if they're running in a VFS4G clone, it doesn't actually look into the folder, only that it exists.

Do we know if any tools owned by customers are actually navigating into the .gvfs folder vs just keying off of it existing? The empty .gvfs folder would work great for my team's tools, so I'd encourage us to make that change ASAP.

[wilbaker]

That script uses the .gvfs folder to determine if they're running in a VFS4G clone, it doesn't actually look into the folder, only that it exists.

Is that a Windows only script, or does it run on Mac as well?

[nickgra]

I talked to some people offline, it turns out our tools key off the .git folder existing. Therefore, don't worry about our tools when making this change :)

[kivikakk]

I've put some WIP up at #1084.