Re: [PATCH v1 0/3] Introduce config variable "diff.primer"

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Jan 27, 2009, 04:54 UTC
Message-ID: <20090127045452.GB735@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.GSO.2.00.0901261734360.16158@kiwi.cs.ucla.edu>

On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 05:47:54PM -0800, Keith Cascio wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> >   2. It is unset. The rationale is that you are using the "c" diff
> >      driver, and it has left the value unset. The default then means "if
> >      you have no diff driver setup".
> 
> I'm in favor of option (2), because [diff] a.k.a [diff ""] serving as

Nit: [diff] and [diff ""] are different. The "dotted" notation which we
use in the code and which git-config respects for a variable "foo" in
each section would look like "diff.foo" and "diff..foo", respectively.

> the fallback for [diff *] feels like a special case.  If a full system
> of precedence

Yes, I think having a "this is the default driver whose driver-specific options are used if you don't have a different driver" is semantically simple and clear.

> and fallbacks is desired for .git/config, we should adopt explicit
> grammar that lets me define an arbitrary precedence tree over all
> sections.  Once a powerful concept is born, somewhere down the road,
> some user will desire its universalization.

OK, now you're scaring me. :) I'm not sure I want to see the grammar you would use to define an arbitrary precedence tree, or whether such complexity has any real-world use in git config. I think you would have to show a concrete example to prove the utility of something like that.

-Peff