Re: Why does "git config" output nothing instead of the default value for unset variables?

From: Sebastian Schuberth <sschuberth@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 14, 2013, 19:05 UTC
Message-ID: <CAHGBnuOJFVahoUwcF6dZZUEmDtKU_zvWsKtTwufN7RqeNxkZ=w@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20130414185619.GB1621@sigill.intra.peff.net>

On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 8:56 PM, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

>> More to the point, I can easily imagine many scripts relying on git
>> config returning a value to indicate that a config item has been set.
>> Your proposed change would break all those. For that reason, it might
>> be nicer to introduce a flag that returns the config if it is set or
>> the default otherwise. Something like git config --value perhaps.
>
> The expected output is certainly a problem, but the issue is more
> fundamental than that: git-config does not even _know_ what the default
> is for any given option.

Thanks for the explanation, I feared something like that. I.e. that git config does not even know any of the options or values it manages, but just is a "dumb" front-end to writing / reading whatever you pass it to / from a file.

-- 
Sebastian Schuberth