Re: Fwd: git clone does not respect command line options

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Feb 26, 2016, 08:24 UTC
Message-ID: <20160226082437.GB26994@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <CA+P7+xpuiUQgWYRgVrwKkv27KiJGQ0COrR93cFzQzn2uVA6ypQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 12:15:46AM -0800, Jacob Keller wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 11:59 PM, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
> > Right. The "git-config" program doesn't know about the semantics of
> > particular values (remember that in the early days, there were many
> > porcelains which built on top of git, and they could all store their own
> > config). Using "--get" implements "last one wins" semantics, which
> > is what most config variables want. You can use "--get-all" to see all
> > instances of a multi-valued variable.
> 
> And note that several libraries of hooks and git extensions store
> configuration there as well, not just traditional porcelain. (Though
> maybe that is considered porcelain? Not really sure on the term here).
> I do this myself for several custom git hooks.

Thanks, I meant to add "and it is unclear these days how many addons are still using this feature".

I mentioned ugliness and backwards compatibility earlier. I think having a meaning-agnostic git-config command is still a reasonable thing these days. But given how few multi-valued variables there are, it might have been worth designing them differently, so that everything is last-one-wins.

As an alternative, it would be nice to have some config syntax for "clear the list". Maybe something like an empty string, which I think has no meaning for the current multi-valued variables (at least not for credential helpers or refspecs). That would allow something like:

  git -c credential.helper= clone ...

to do what you'd expect.

-Peff