Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] doc: provide guidance on user.name format

From: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date: Oct 17, 2019, 22:20 UTC
Message-ID: <20191017222038.t2qlqderp44q2m7v@camp.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To: <20191017054051.GA10253@sigill.intra.peff.net>

On 2019-10-17 at 05:40:52, Jeff King wrote:

Show 27 quoted lines

> On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 12:53:28AM +0000, brian m. carlson wrote:
> 
> > It's a frequent misconception that the user.name variable controls
> > authentication in some way, and as a result, beginning users frequently
> > attempt to change it when they're having authentication troubles.
> > Document that the convention is that this variable represents some form
> > of a human's personal name, although that is not required.  In addition,
> > address concerns about whether Unicode is supported.
> > 
> > Use the term "personal name" as this is likely to draw the intended
> > contrast, be applicable across cultures which may have different naming
> > conventions, and be easily understandable to people who do not speak
> > English as their first language.  Indicate that "some form" is
> > conventionally used, as people may use a nickname or preferred name
> > instead of a full legal name.
> > 
> > Point users who may be confused about authentication to an appropriate
> > configuration option instead.
> 
> I think this is a good distinction to draw, but...
> 
> >  Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt | 6 ++++++
> >  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
> 
> ...I was surprised to see it here, where I think most users wouldn't
> find it. Would it make sense in git-commit(1), or in the description of
> the user.name config?

So the user.name config description points to git-commit-tree(1), which describes these in detail, which is why I put it there. I agree that it's not a super discoverable place, since I don't know anyone that actually uses git commit-tree these days. git-commit(1) doesn't describe these options at all.

There are, of course, options. I can add this text into the `user.name` option in git-config(5) nevertheless, which will likely be more discoverable, but it will split the documentation on those into two separate locations. Or we can leave it in git-commit-tree(1) anyway to keep it together.

Since you and Junio think this is an odd place (and I agree), I think it's fine to separate the text out, and I'll reroll with that change unless someone speaks up strongly against it.

-- 
brian m. carlson: Houston, Texas, US
OpenPGP: https://keybase.io/bk2204