git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: Add configuration options for some commonly used command-line options

From
BWBrandon Williams <bmwill@google.com>
Date
Mar 20, 2017, 17:32 UTC
Message-ID
<20170320173237.GA188475@google.com>
In-Reply-To
<CACsJy8CQzo9K8N3xH_HJq=NjJVOUG9wawC4Mg+UuyFRZCPBpFw@mail.gmail.com>
On 03/20, Duy Nguyen wrote:
Show 49 quoted lines
> On Sun, Mar 19, 2017 at 8:43 PM, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
> <avarab@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Mar 19, 2017 at 2:18 PM, brian m. carlson
> > <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> wrote:
> >> On Sun, Mar 19, 2017 at 11:15:33AM +0100, Matthieu Moy wrote:
> >>> I think the main problem is indeed "stop the users from shooting
> >>> themselves in the foot". Many command-line options change the behavior
> >>> completely so allowing users to enable them by default means allowing
> >>> the users to change Git in such a way that scripts calling it are
> >>> broken.
> >>>
> >>> This also doesn't help when troublshouting an issue as these options are
> >>> typically something set once and for all and which you forget about.
> >>> This typically leads to discussion in Q&A forums like:
> >>>
> >>> A: Can you run "git foo"?
> >>> B: Here's the result: ...
> >>> A: I don't understand, I can't reproduce here.
> >>>
> >>> just because B has a CLI option enabled by default.
> >>>
> >>> This is the same reasoning that leads Git to forbid aliasing an existing
> >>> command to something else.
> >>>
> >>> OTOH, we already have almost "enable such or such option by default"
> >>> with aliases. People who always run "git am" with "-3" can write
> >>>
> >>> [alias]
> >>>         a3 = am -3
> >>>
> >>> and just run "git a3".
> >
> > I can't find the E-Mail chain now but this has been discussed on-list
> > a while ago. I.e. having some getopt support to say for the push
> > command, that the --rebase option can also come from the config, i.e.
> > in this case the pull.rebase option.
> >
> > IIRC the consensus was that such a facility would allow commands or
> > individual options to say "this command/option is configurable", thus
> > of course all plumbing utilities would be unconfigurable, but
> > porcelain scripts would be configurable by default, with some
> > exceptions.
> 
> This is exactly it! It's much better than adding individual config
> variables (less work for sure, but messier). Maybe we should promote
> the microproject "Add configuration options for commonly used cmdline
> options" to project. If it's too short (I'm guessing the core code
> could be done in a month), the gsoc student can always convert more
> config to the new way.

If in the future we did want better support for making user defaults (apart from aliases) for commands we could entertain creating a command like bash's 'command' which ignores any user defaults and executes a particular command in a vanilla mode.

So if the user configured 'git am' to always use the -3 option then running `git command am` (or something akin to that) would just run the vanilla 'am' command with no options. Probably not the best idea since tooling would need to become aware of such a paradigm change, but its just a thought.

-- 
Brandon Williams
Previous: Duy NguyenNext: Jeff King
Message 6 of 19 in “Add configuration options for some commonly used command-line options (Was: [RFH] GSoC 2015 application)”
  1. Duy NguyenMar 19, 2017
  2. Matthieu MoyMar 19, 2017
  3. brian m. carlsonMar 19, 2017
  4. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 19, 2017
  5. Duy NguyenMar 20, 2017
  6. Brandon WilliamsMar 20, 2017
  7. Jeff KingMar 20, 2017
  8. Brandon McCaigMar 31, 2017
  9. Junio C HamanoMar 20, 2017
  10. Jeff KingMar 20, 2017
  11. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 20, 2017
  12. parse-options: add facility to make options configurableÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 24, 2017
  13. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 25, 2017
  14. Jeff KingMar 25, 2017
  15. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 25, 2017
  16. Jeff KingMar 28, 2017
  17. WIP configurable options facilityÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 28, 2017
  18. brian m. carlsonMar 25, 2017
  19. Duy NguyenMar 20, 2017

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.