Re: [DISCUSS] validation on git config user.email

From: Thomas Guyot <tguyot@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 12, 2025, 15:39 UTC
Message-ID: <45640ca0-b3c5-4627-b41a-0b58ff559d2b@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAJKmQvf-sLxowLJLitvqDmyL1BXXDK+anDE2jaBSEabApMNVoQ@mail.gmail.com>

On 2025-09-12 00:13, usharerose wrote:

> 
> I'm interested in understanding the design philosophy or historical
> reasons behind this 'lack' of validation.
>

Hi usharerose,

To add to the other valid responses, email is something that can be validated by hooks server-side to enforce not only proper formatting but also valid users are being used, ex. validating against an LDAP directory.

This is much better that validating it at the command level (although IIRC git-comit does warn about possibly unset/invalid email addresses). In addition, unless git starts enforcing stricter rules on the commit message format (which would be a breaking change), nothing else can prevent someone from constructing commits with invalid emails, so checks by git-commit alone can't be strictly enforceable.

Furthermore, imported commits from other SCMs may have odd user name/email and it may be desirable to keep then in their original formats rather than turning them into fake email addresses.

Regards,

-- Thomas