Re: git config key bug or by design?

From: Peter van der Does <peter@avirtualhome.com>
Date: Nov 28, 2012, 12:11 UTC
Message-ID: <20121128071147.188a869e@Indy>
In-Reply-To: <20121128033408.GE27772@sigill.intra.peff.net>

On Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:34:09 -0500 Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> 
> I don't recall ever discussing it. But what is it that you want to
> store in a key starting with a number? Git does not respect any such
> config values[1].
> 
> Are you writing a new tool that will store its config alongside git's?
> Even if the behavior is loosened, you would probably want to avoid
> starting your config keys with numbers, as older git versions would be
> around for a while and would choke on it.
> 
> -Peff
> 
> [1] You can still store arbitrary bytes in the subsection name (e.g.,
>     "foo.123.bar").

I am writing a tool, it needs to store branch names in a separate config file.

It's clear git doesn't respect those values, hence my question. I understand how to work around the problem, I would just prefix the key. I was just wondering if it was by design, which I guess it is as the parsing of the file will die if the key starts with a non-alpha character.

-- 
Peter van der Does

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