[jira] [Comment Edited] (MNG-7270) Maven startup script (init) calls which(1) which is an external command

["Jonathan Dowland (Jira)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-7270?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=17422682#comment-17422682 ] 

Jonathan Dowland edited comment on MNG-7270 at 9/30/21, 10:24 AM:
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The binary itself is tiny, yes; but the savings are cumulative with everything else shaved off. Installing which on top of an image which doesn't have it can cost 17-20MiB due to package overhead and package manager metadata changes. ([https://github.com/quarkusio/quarkus-buildpacks/pull/14#issuecomment-927834729).]

It's not installed by default in Red Hat Universal Base Images, and Debian have just moved it out of the "Essential" package set. So besides the space saving aspect, it's going to become less likely to be available. Distribution packages will start having to add an explicit dependency on "which" to their maven packages.


was (Author: jmtd):
The binary itself is tiny, yes; but the savings are cumulative with everything else shaved off. Installing which on top of an image which doesn't have it can cost 17-20MiB due to package overhead and package manager metadata changes. ([https://github.com/quarkusio/quarkus-buildpacks/pull/14#issuecomment-927834729).]

It's not installed by default in Red Hat Universal Base Images, and Debian have just moved it out of the "Essential" package set. So besides the space saving aspect, it's going to become less likely to be available. Distribution packages will start having to add an explicit dependency on "which" to the maven package.

> Maven startup script (init) calls which(1) which is an external command
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: MNG-7270
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-7270
>             Project: Maven
>          Issue Type: Bug
>          Components: Command Line
>    Affects Versions: 3.8.2
>         Environment: UNIX/POSIX, Linux
>            Reporter: Jonathan Dowland
>            Priority: Minor
>             Fix For: 4.0.x-candidate, 3.8.x-candidate
>
>
> The "init" shell wrapper script, that often ends up as /usr/bin/mvn in downstream distributions, calls the program "which" in the situation where JAVA_HOME is not defined.
> "which" is a separate binary program that may or may not be installed. Increasingly it may not be in environments which are trying to reduce their install footprint e.g. containers.
> A portable alternative is to use {{command \-v}} with some defensive commands prior (unalias, unset: see [https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/command.html).]--
> I've got a PR ready to go.



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