Re: [PATCH] config: read system-wide defaults from /etc/gitconfig

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Feb 14, 2007, 17:45 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0702141843190.22628@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>
In-Reply-To: <7vfy98snus.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>

Hi,

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
> 
> > The settings in /etc/gitconfig can be overridden in ~/.gitconfig,
> > which in turn can be overridden in .git/config.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>
> > ---
> > ...
> > 	Voilà.
> 
> I knew this can be done, and you are capable of doing this, but I was 
> wondering if it is a good thing to do in the first place.
> 
> Site-wide configuration for options that are potentially 
> compatibility-breaking is a bad idea on a multi-user machines, and it 
> was certainly the case back when our machines hosted many diverse set of 
> people.

That is why /etc is only writable by the administrator. And contrary to the Microsoft-infected world, Unix and Linux administrators are expected to have real know how. If they don't care about breaking things or not, they'll find other ways to screw you.

> But these days many machines are practically single-user and many more 
> are owned by a single group/project that share the same policy.  So in 
> such a setting, /etc/gitconfig might not be too bad.

Well, I don't use it myself (other than testing that the patch does what it says). Let the list decide?

Ciao, Dscho