[PATCH 3/3] git-config: document accidental multi-line setting in deprecated syntax

From: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Date: Aug 1, 2018, 19:34 UTC
Message-ID: <20180801193413.146994-4-sbeller@google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20180801193413.146994-1-sbeller@google.com>

The bug was noticed when writing the previous patch; a fix for this bug is not easy though: If we choose to ignore the case of the subsection (and revert most of the code of the previous patch, just keeping s/strncasecmp/strcmp/), then we'd introduce new sections using the new syntax, such that

 --------
   [section.subsection]
     key = value1
 --------

  git config section.Subsection.key value2

would result in

 --------
   [section.subsection]
     key = value1
   [section.Subsection]
     key = value2
 --------

which is even more confusing. A proper fix would replace the first occurrence of 'key'. As the syntax is deprecated, let's prefer to not spend time on fixing the behavior and just document it instead.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
---
 Documentation/git-config.txt | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-config.txt b/Documentation/git-config.txt
index 18ddc78f42d..8e240435bee 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-config.txt
@@ -453,6 +453,27 @@ http.sslverify false
 
 include::config.txt[]
 
+BUGS
+----
+When using the deprecated `[section.subsection]` syntax, changing a value
+will result in adding a multi-line key instead of a change, if the subsection
+is given with at least one uppercase character. For example when the config
+looks like
+
+--------
+  [section.subsection]
+    key = value1
+--------
+
+and running `git config section.Subsection.key value2` will result in
+
+--------
+  [section.subsection]
+    key = value1
+    key = value2
+--------
+
+
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite

-- 
2.18.0.132.g195c49a2227