[PATCH/RFC 0/2] format-patch: produce non colorized patches when color.ui=always

Hi list,

commit c9bfb953 (want_color: automatically fallback to color.ui) introduced a regression which causes format-patch to produce colorized patches when color.ui is set to "always".

Since patches are ultimately intended for machine consumption, having color codes present in them is undesirable.

My understanding of the codebase is very limited. I've looked into builtin/log.c and the call chain which causes format-patch to produce colorized output is:

git_format_config
  |_ git_log_config
       |_ git_diff_ui_config
	        |_ git_color_config
			     |_ git_config_colorbool

which causes git_use_color_default to be set to 1 when color.ui is set to "always".

I believe that I can assume that the parsing done in git_diff_ui_config is related to the [<common diff options>] based on git format-patch manpage?

I've introduced a color_disable function in color.c which changes git_use_color_default to 0. This is the simplest solution I can see without heavily touching the stuff in the call chain above since they might be needed for format-patch.

I understand that this is very hacky but well, I'm really looking for ways to contribute to Git and this seems like one.

Any advice on how this can be better solved is deeply appreciated.

Thanks.

Pang Yan Han (2):
  format-patch: demonstrate that color.ui=always produces colorized
    patches
  format-patch: produce non colorized patches when ui.color=always

 builtin/log.c                 |    1 +
 color.c                       |    5 +++++
 color.h                       |    1 +
 t/t4051-format-patch-color.sh |   23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100755 t/t4051-format-patch-color.sh