Re: [PATCH] docs: document credential.helper allowed values

From: Carlo Marcelo Arenas Belón <carenas@gmail.com>
Date: May 6, 2020, 00:30 UTC
Message-ID: <20200506003029.GB49541@Carlos-MBP>
In-Reply-To: <20200505231226.1280264-1-sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>

On Tue, May 05, 2020 at 11:12:26PM +0000, brian m. carlson wrote:

Show 32 quoted lines

> gitcredentials(7) already mentions several possible invocations that one
> can use as the value for credential.helper.  However, many people are
> not aware that there are other options than a simple credential helper
> name, so let's place some explanatory text in the documentation for
> credential.helper as well.
> 
> We still refer the user to gitcredential(7) for additional explanations
> and helpful examples.
> 
> Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
> ---
>  Documentation/config/credential.txt | 10 +++++++---
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/config/credential.txt b/Documentation/config/credential.txt
> index 60fb3189e1..9d01641c28 100644
> --- a/Documentation/config/credential.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/config/credential.txt
> @@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
>  credential.helper::
>  	Specify an external helper to be called when a username or
>  	password credential is needed; the helper may consult external
> -	storage to avoid prompting the user for the credentials. Note
> -	that multiple helpers may be defined. See linkgit:gitcredentials[7]
> -	for details.
> +	storage to avoid prompting the user for the credentials. This is
> +	normally the name of a credential helper with possible
> +	arguments, but may also be an absolute path with arguments or, if
> +	preceded by `!`, shell commands.
> ++
> +Note that multiple helpers may be defined. See linkgit:gitcredentials[7]
> +for details and examples.

what about something even simpler, to encourage people to go see the full range of options and hopeful find a fitting example in gitcredentials?

  "This is usually a credential helper application with possible arguments
   but might also be a simple shell one liner for the simplest uses"

with the Note following as you suggested.
 
Carlo

PS. I suspect a sample like the one you provided for smtp would be very
    useful there, specially if using an encrypted storage of sort.