Re: [PATCH] config: Add new option to open an editor.

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Feb 4, 2009, 15:18 UTC
Message-ID: <20090204151833.GA6896@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <94a0d4530902040703u53a9082fsfa7203b6203bd118@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 05:03:22PM +0200, Felipe Contreras wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

> > With this patch, won't I get different behavior from:
> >
> >  git config -e --global
> >
> > versus
> >
> >  git config --global -e
> 
> Just like you get different behavior from:
> 
> git config -l --global
> 
> and
> 
> git config --global -l

Ugh. Personally I consider such interfaces poorly designed. I understand that the general way "git config" works is to have "git config [options] [action]". And when "[action]" is a variable name, or a variable name with a value, it is easy to see what's going on. But when the action looks like an option, it is just confusing that their ordering is important.

However, the interface to "git config" is not going to change, so I think your following existing practice is reasonable here.

_But_ there is one important difference between your "-e" and "-l". In the "-l" case, we detect that there is extra trailing cruft that will be ignored and give a usage message. So "git config -l --global" complains, but "git config -e --global" silently ignores the second argument. I think you just need to add

  if (argc != 2)
    usage(git_config_set_usage);

as the "-l" code does.

-Peff